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Salt-rising Bread

A bread made by mixing milk, boiling water, sugar, salt, graham flour or cornmeal, and wheat flour, then letting rise and baking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and wheat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Salt-rising Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the starter

  1. Combine milk with enough boiling water to reach blood temperature.

  2. Add sugar, salt, graham flour or cornmeal, and wheat flour. Mix well.

  3. Set the bowl in warm water to rise.

  4. If water forms on top, sprinkle in more water and stir.

Make the bread

  1. When risen, shape the dough and place in pans.

  2. Let the dough stand until light.

  3. Bake quickly.

  4. Brush the crust with butter.

Make the rolls

  1. For rolls, boil 1 pint of milk. Melt ¼ cup butter.

  2. Add ½ teaspoon salt and 1 tablespoon sugar. Let the mixture cool.

  3. Stir in ½ cake of yeast softened in water. Gradually add 4 to 5 cups of bread flour.

  4. Let the dough rise. Shape as desired.

  5. For folded rolls, roll the dough ½ inch thick. Cut into rounds. Shape into ovals. Spread with melted butter. Fold.

  6. Place on a pan 2 inches apart. Bake in a hot oven for 15 to 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. Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Wheat + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together209 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Provides moisture and feeds the fermentation that leavens the dough.
Wheat flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the bread its structure and chew.
Butter
Adds richness and a softer crumb, and browns the crust when brushed on.
Yeast
Produces gas during fermentation, lifting the dough as it rises.
Bread flour
Its high protein builds strong gluten for a light, elastic roll structure.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise fully before baking. Fermentation trapped gas gives the bread its lightness. Under-proofed dough bakes dense, while over-proofed dough collapses, so the dough should look light and airy before it goes into the oven.

“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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