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Kentucky Salt Rising Bread

A yeast bread made with scalded milk, corn meal, flour, lard, and salt, left to rise overnight and baked slowly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓

Kentucky Salt Rising Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the starter

  1. Combine scalded milk, a pinch of salt, and enough corn meal to make a batter.

  2. Let the mixture sit in a warm place overnight to sour.

  3. Add 1 pint of warm water and enough flour to make a batter.

  4. Set aside in a warm place to rise for about 2 hours.

Make the dough and bake

  1. Mix 3 cups sifted flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon lard, and ½ cup yeast.

  2. Add lukewarm water to form a sponge and let it rise for about 3 hours.

  3. Once risen, bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for about 40 to 50 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 + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  2. Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour 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

What each ingredient does

Sweet milk
Scalded milk feeds the sour starter and adds richness and a soft crumb.
Corn meal
Provides the starch and fermentable material that the starter sours and rises from.
Flour
Forms the gluten structure that traps gas and gives the loaf its shape.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and softens the texture.
Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, causing the dough to rise and become light.

The step that matters

Overnight souring of the starter. The starter must sit warm long enough to sour and become active. Too cool or too short a rest leaves it flat, so the bread will not rise properly.

“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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