Name: Salt Rising Bread
Ingredients: one pint warm water; one tablespoon meal; one teaspoon sugar; one-half teaspoon salt; one-half pint of potato water; two large potatoes

Why it works: Sugar and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Salt Rising Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sponge

Into a quart tin, put one pint warm water, one tablespoon meal, one teaspoon sugar, one-half teaspoon salt.
Stir flour to make stiff.
Put tin in kettle of warm water, covering tin and kettle.

Make the dough

Add one-half pint of potato water, scald flour, add two large mashed potatoes, and lard the size of an egg. Mix, let rise, and mold into loaves.
Let rise and bake.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

210Calories

4 gProtein

0 gFat

50 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 4 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0

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

By United Methodist Church (Grayville, Ill.). 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.

Sugar + potatotop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes: Add moisture and starch, giving the bread a soft, tender crumb.
Flour (in the method): Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure.
Lard (in the method): Adds fat, which tenderizes the crumb and softens the texture.
Sugar: Feeds the yeast so the dough rises well and browns lightly.

“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.