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Buttermilk Bread

A yeasted bread made with buttermilk, sugar, salt, butter, and baking soda, baked at 350°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Buttermilk and flour 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 ↓

Buttermilk Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the dough

  1. Warm the buttermilk and add the yeast and baking soda.

  2. Stir in the sugar, salt, and butter.

  3. Gradually add warm flour to form a soft dough.

  4. Knead the dough well and let it rise.

  5. Knead again, then place in greased tins.

Bake

  1. Let it rise again and bake for about 1 hour at 350°F (175°C).

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. Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Buttermilk + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Sour buttermilk
Adds moisture and tang, and its acidity reacts with the baking soda to help the loaf rise.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars in the dough, producing gas that makes the bread rise and become airy.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour buttermilk's acid to release carbon dioxide, adding lift and a tender crumb.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough structure and holds the gas produced during rising.
Butter
Adds fat for a softer crumb and richer flavor.

The step that matters

Knead the dough well and let it rise. Kneading develops the gluten network that traps the gas from the yeast. Without enough kneading, the dough may not hold its shape or rise evenly in the tins.

“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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