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Bread

Spoon Bread

A thin batter bread baked at low heat, made with buttermilk, butter, meal, eggs, baking soda, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Spoon Bread

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the baking soda into the buttermilk.

  3. Add the beaten eggs and melted butter to the mixture.

  4. Gradually beat in the meal and add salt to taste.

  5. Adjust the amount of meal to achieve a very thin batter.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the batter into a well-greased pan.

  2. Bake slowly until set and lightly browned.

  3. Serve hot with butter.

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. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Buttermilk + buttertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,674 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Buttermilk + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,986 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Buttermilk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda, producing gas that lifts the batter.
Eggs
Set when baked, giving the spoon bread its structure and custardy body.
Meal
Provides starch and body that thickens the batter as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the buttermilk's acid to leaven the batter.
Butter
Adds richness and fat for a tender crumb and flavour.

The step that matters

Adjust the amount of meal to achieve a very thin batter.. Meal absorbs liquid and thickens the batter, so too much makes a dense result. A very thin batter lets the eggs and leavening lift it into a light, soft spoon bread.

“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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