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Bread

Salt Rising Bread

A yeast-leavened bread made with salt, sugar, flour, and a milk-water mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Salt Rising Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA steady oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the starter

  1. Fill a quart cup one-third full of lukewarm water.

  2. Add salt, sugar, and enough flour to achieve a griddle cake consistency.

  3. Place the cup in a closed vessel half-filled with moderately hot water.

  4. Keep the temperature even; the yeast should rise in about 5 hours.

Make the sponge

  1. Sift flour into a pan.

  2. Make an opening in the center of the pan.

  3. Pour in the yeast mixture.

  4. Add the salted milk and water mixture.

  5. Stir rapidly into a sponge.

  6. Cover closely.

  7. Keep warm for 1 hour.

Shape and rise

  1. Knead into loaves.

  2. Add flour for proper consistency.

  3. Place in well-greased pans and cover.

  4. Let rise until light.

Bake and store

  1. Bake in a steady oven at 350°F (175°C).

  2. Let steam escape.

  3. Wrap in a damp towel.

  4. Store in a closed jar.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the loaves together as the dough is kneaded and baked.
Milk
Adds softness and a tender crumb along with a mild richness to the loaf.
Water
Hydrates the flour so gluten can form and keeps the dough moist for fermentation.

The step that matters

Keep the temperature even. Yeast ferments steadily only at a steady, moderate warmth. Too much heat can kill it and too little slows the rise, so the starter may fail or rise unevenly.

“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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