Skip to main content
Bread

Bread Made From Yeast Foam

Bread made by mixing yeast foam with water, salt, sugar, and flour to form a dough, then baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓

Bread Made From Yeast Foam

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the sponge

  1. Dissolve the yeast foam in lukewarm water in a bread pan.

  2. Add 1 quart of warm water, 1 tablespoon of salt, and 1 tablespoon of sugar.

  3. Mix in enough flour to make a stiff batter.

  4. Set the mixture aside to rise overnight.

Make the dough and bake

  1. The next morning, pour the sponge into 2 quarts of sifted flour, 1 pint of warm water, and 1 tablespoon of salt.

  2. Mix well to form a smooth, soft dough.

  3. When the dough is light, shape it into 4 loaves.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 1 hour.

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

What each ingredient does

Yeast foam
Ferments the sponge, producing gas that makes the dough rise and become light.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the bread its structure and chew.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast early on, helping the sponge ferment and rise.
Salt
Controls yeast activity and strengthens the dough's flavour and texture.
Warm water
Hydrates the flour and activates the yeast, forming the dough.

The step that matters

Overnight sponge rise. The stiff batter must be left long enough for the yeast to ferment fully. Under-proofed sponge gives a dense loaf, while the dough needs to become light before shaping so the bread bakes with an open crumb.

“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.

You might also like

CornbreadCornbread345 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding336 recipesMilk Bread RollsMilk Bread Rolls242 recipesPotato BreadPotato Bread124 recipes