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Salt Rising Bread

A bread made with a milk-meal sponge, flour batter, salt, sugar, and butter, baked after rising.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Salt Rising Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sponge

  1. Boil ⅔ cup of fresh milk.

  2. Quickly remove from heat and stir in enough meal to make a stiff sponge.

  3. Wrap the cup in a cloth while warm.

  4. Cover with paper to exclude air.

  5. Place in a warm crock.

  6. In the morning, place the cup in warm water for 30 minutes to let the meal rise.

  7. Add a pinch of baking soda, salt, and sugar to the risen meal.

  8. Pour 1 pint of water (too warm to bear the hand in) into a bowl.

  9. Stir in enough flour to make a moderately stiff batter.

  10. Once smooth, stir in the meal sponge.

  11. Let the sponge rise in a warm place until it has increased in size by half.

Make the dough

  1. In a bread bowl, sift flour.

  2. Make a well in the center.

  3. Add 1 heaping teaspoon of sugar.

  4. Add 1 tablespoon of salt.

  5. Add 1 teaspoon of butter, lard, or drippings.

  6. Pour 1 pint of boiling water over the mixture.

  7. Stir well to combine.

  8. Cool the mixture with milk or water as needed.

  9. Add the soft sponge.

  10. Mix until stiff.

  11. Remove from the bowl and knead well.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape into small loaves.

  2. Place each loaf in a separate tin pan in a warm place to rise until light.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes, covering with brown paper until half done for better rising.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Fresh milk
Adds richness and softness to the sponge, helping the crumb stay tender.
Meal
Forms the starter sponge, whose fermentation leavens the bread.
Flour
Provides the gluten network that gives the loaf its structure.
Sugar
Feeds the fermentation and adds mild sweetness and browning.
Butter, lard, or drippings
Adds fat that softens the crumb and gives a tender texture.

The step that matters

Let the sponge rise until it has increased by half. The sponge must ferment long enough to leaven the dough; under-rising leaves a dense loaf, while the gentle warmth keeps yeast-like activity steady.

“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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