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Bread

Swedish Rye Bread

A rye bread made with potato water, sugar, molasses, caraway seed, and scalded rye flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Caraway and rye share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 87 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Swedish Rye Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the starter

  1. Scald one sieveful rye flour with hot water enough to moisten, cover and let stand one hour.

  2. In one pint potato water, dissolve yeast cake and a little white flour; set to rise for one hour.

Mix and bake

  1. With this mix, add the scalded rye flour, one cupful sugar, one cupful molasses, one-half cupful caraway seed, and a little salt.

  2. Knead stiff with white flour, letting it rise twice before baking.

  3. Bake slowly for one good hour.

  4. Moisten top with a little molasses and water.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

806Calories
20 gProtein
2 gFat
175 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 8 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Rye1 slice (32g)83
Molasses1 tbsp (20g)58
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Caraway Seednot 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. Caraway + ryetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together87 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Caraway + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Rye + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,320 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Potato + ryetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together75 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Rye flour
Provides the dense, earthy structure and flavor that define this loaf.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and moisture to the dough and crust.
Yeast cake (in the method)
Leavens the dough so it rises before and after kneading.
White flour
Adds gluten during kneading, giving the stiff dough enough elasticity to hold its rise.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness to the loaf.

The step that matters

Kneading and the two rises. The dough must be kneaded stiff enough to develop gluten, and it needs to rise fully twice. Rye flour has little gluten, so the white flour and proper rising are what give the loaf enough structure and lift.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, molasses, caraway, rye, flour):

  1. Beetrootfits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, caraway, rye, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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