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Bread

Norwegian Bread

A simple yeast‑free bread made with barley meal, Graham flour, white flour, baking powder, salt, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Barley and flour work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 582 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Norwegian Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the dough

  1. Sift together the barley meal, salt, Graham flour, baking powder, and white flour.

  2. Mix the dry ingredients with the milk to form a firm dough.

Bake

  1. Pour the dough into a greased tin.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 40 minutes, covering with paper for the first 25 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. Barley + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together582 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Barley + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Barley meal
Adds a dense, crumbly texture and a distinct nutty, earthy flavour, since it has little gluten.
Graham flour
Adds a coarser texture and a wholesome, nutty flavour to the loaf.
White flour
Its gluten gives the dough enough structure to hold its shape while baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas when moistened and heated, lifting the dough so the loaf rises.
Milk
Hydrates the flours, binds the dough, and adds moisture and tenderness.

The step that matters

Get the dough into the tin and oven promptly. Baking powder starts releasing gas as soon as it meets the liquid milk and heat. If the dough waits too long before baking, some of that lift is lost and the loaf can bake up denser.

“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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