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Bread with Buttermilk

A yeasted bread made with buttermilk and a sponge of flour and buttermilk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Buttermilk and flour 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 ↓

Bread with Buttermilk

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sponge

  1. Bring the buttermilk to a boil the evening before baking, or boil sour milk and use the same quantity of whey.

  2. Pour the hot liquid into a crock containing 1 small cup of flour.

  3. Let the mixture cool.

  4. Add yeast and enough flour to make a thick batter.

Make the dough

  1. In the morning, sift flour into a bread pan and pour the sponge in the center.

  2. Stir in some of the flour and let it stand until after breakfast.

  3. Mix and knead the dough for about 30 minutes, kneading longer for better results.

  4. When the dough is light, mold it into loaves, kneading as little as possible.

Bake

  1. Bake until done, ensuring not to bake too hard.

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. Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Buttermilk
Provides acidity and liquid, and its acid helps the dough develop a tender crumb.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the bread its structure and chew.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light.

The step that matters

Kneading and shaping the loaves. Kneading develops gluten for structure, but over-kneading after the dough rises can knock out gas and toughen the crumb, so shape gently with minimal handling.

“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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