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Bread

Norwegian Bread, for Dyspeptics

A simple barley and flour bread baked at 350°F for 40 minutes, suitable for dyspeptic digestion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Barley and flour work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 582 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Norwegian Bread, for Dyspeptics

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Sift together the barley meal, Graham flour, all-purpose flour, salt, and baking powder.

  2. Mix into a firm batter with the milk.

  3. Pour the batter into a greased tin.

Bake

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 40 minutes, covering with greased paper for the first 20 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Barley + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together582 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Barley + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Barley meal
Forms the bulk of the loaf and gives a dense, hearty crumb.
Graham flour
Adds coarse bran and wheat flavour, giving the bread a more rustic texture.
All-purpose flour
Provides gluten for structure, helping the batter hold together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven, helping the loaf rise despite the heavy flours.
Milk
Hydrates the flours into a firm batter and adds moisture and tenderness.

The step that matters

Mix into a firm batter with the milk. Stirring only until the batter comes together keeps it from becoming overworked. Overmixing develops gluten and can toughen the crumb, while too little liquid leaves dry pockets of flour and a crumbly loaf.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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