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Bread

Buttermilk Bread

A quick bread made with wheat flour, baking soda, butter, powdered sugar, and buttermilk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Buttermilk Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

Mix and knead

  1. In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, butter, powdered sugar, and buttermilk until combined.

  2. Knead the mixture into a soft dough.

Rise and bake

  1. Place the dough in a greased pan and let it rise in a slightly warm oven.

  2. Once risen, bake until golden brown.

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. Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Wheat + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,002 recipes

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

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

What each ingredient does

Wheat flour
Provides the structure that holds the dough together as it kneads and bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in buttermilk to release carbon dioxide, which lifts the dough.
Buttermilk
Adds moisture and acidity, which activates the baking soda and tenderizes the crumb.
Butter
Adds fat, which softens the crumb and gives a richer texture.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise in a slightly warm oven. Baking soda reacts with the acid in buttermilk as soon as they meet, releasing gas that lifts the dough. Gentle warmth keeps the yeast-free rise steady, so the bread gets light without collapsing. Baking should follow once the dough has risen.

“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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