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Bread

Salt Rising Bread

A bread made by mixing flour with water, salt, and lard, letting it rise in warm water, then baking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Salt Rising Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the starter

  1. Put one pint of boiling water, salt, soda, and sugar about the size of a bean into a container.

  2. Let stand until nearly cool.

  3. Add flour enough to make a batter and beat well.

  4. Set the batter in a kettle of warm water to rise.

  5. When the sponge gets light, mix like any other bread.

Make the sponge and dough

  1. Put two teaspoonfuls of sweet milk into one pint of warm water.

  2. Add one teaspoonful of salt and two pints of flour.

  3. Beat smooth, place in a jar and cover.

  4. Set in warm water and place where it will keep warm, but not hot.

  5. When it foams and runs over, pour into flour (four pints) and mix with a little warm water, a teaspoonful of lard, and a pinch of salt.

  6. Knead, mold and let rise.

Bake

  1. Put the dough in pans and bake.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

719Calories
21 gProtein
22 gFat
107 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Lard1 tbsp (12.8g)115
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

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. See the original page.

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. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour 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

Flour
Forms the batter and dough structure that holds the rising gas and sets when baked.
Warm water
Keeps the batter at a temperature that encourages fermentation and rising.
Lard
Adds fat that softens the crumb and gives a tender texture.
Salt
Controls the pace of fermentation and adds flavour to the bread.

The step that matters

Keep the sponge warm but not hot. Gentle warmth lets the fermentation proceed steadily; heat that is too high can overwork the yeast-like culture and leave the bread flat or sour.

“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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