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Pulled Bread

A loaf of bread dough is braided, baked, then pulled apart into strips and baked again until crisp.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Pulled Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a rather quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Shape the loaf

  1. Divide the dough into six equal parts.

  2. Roll each part into straight lengths as long as a standard bread pan.

  3. Press the ends together.

  4. Braid the strands to form one loaf.

  5. Place the loaf in a broad bread pan.

  6. Flatten it to fit.

Rise and bake

  1. Let it rise for 30 minutes.

  2. Rub a little butter over the loaf to prevent a hard crust.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 30 minutes.

  4. Let it rest for 15 minutes after baking.

Pull and crisp

  1. Tear the loaf apart into long, slender strips.

  2. Place the strips on a baking pan.

  3. Bake in a hot oven for 15 minutes until crisp and well colored.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread dough
Forms the structure of the loaf, setting the shape and crumb as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat and surface richness, and helps keep the crust from hardening too early.

The step that matters

Rub butter over the loaf before baking. The thin fat layer slows surface drying during rising and baking, which helps prevent a hard, tough crust on the loaf.

“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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