Name: Salt Rising Bread
Ingredients: 2 to 3 tablespoons cornmeal; 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger; 1/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt; 1/8 teaspoon baking soda; 1 pint warm water; flour (enough to make a thick sponge); milk (a little, for dough)

Why it works: Flour and milk 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

In a bowl, mix cornmeal, ground ginger, coarse sea salt, and baking soda.
Add salted water to the mixture and set it in a warm place until it rises.
In another bowl, combine warm water with enough flour to create a thick sponge, adding salt and a little baking soda.
Incorporate the raised cornmeal mixture into the sponge and beat well.
Set the mixture in a warm place until it becomes light.
Mix in a little milk and enough flour to form a dough.
Knead the dough quickly and briefly.
Shape into loaves and place in a pan to rise in a warm environment.

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.

Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ginger + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,564 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ginger + milktop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,519 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

Flour and milk 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

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk):

Jalapenofits better
Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegfits better
Gingerthe original

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

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Salt Rising Bread