Name: Excellent Dairy-bread Made Without Yeast
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon pounded sugar; 50 grains pure carbonate of soda; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); 1 pound flour; sour buttermilk (enough to make a firm dough)

Why it works: Flour and buttermilk 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 ↓

Excellent Dairy-bread Made Without Yeast

Oven, in the book's wordsA fierce oven

Ingredients

1 teaspoon pounded sugar
50 grains pure carbonate of soda
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')
1 pound flour
sour buttermilk (enough to make a firm dough)

Directions

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

Prepare the dry mix

Blend the sugar and carbonate of soda together.
Mix the salt with the flour and rub the soda and sugar through a fine sieve into the flour.

Make and bake

Stir and combine well, then quickly make a firm dough with the sour buttermilk.
Bake the loaf in a thoroughly heated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 50 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.

Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,721 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,973 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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

Carbonate of soda: Reacts with the acid in sour buttermilk to release carbon dioxide, which lifts the loaf without yeast.
Sour buttermilk: Provides the acid that activates the carbonate of soda and adds moisture and tang to the dough.
Flour: Forms the structure of the loaf as its proteins and starches set during baking.
Pounded sugar: Adds a little sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.

The step that matters

Work quickly once the buttermilk goes in. Carbonate of soda begins reacting with the acid in buttermilk as soon as they meet, releasing gas. Delaying the shaping and baking lets much of that lift escape, so the loaf can come out flat and dense.

“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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Excellent Dairy-bread Made Without Yeast