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
Ingredients
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
Blend the sugar and carbonate of soda together.
Mix the salt with the flour.
Sift the soda and sugar into the flour and mix well.
Make and bake
Quickly form a firm dough with the sour buttermilk. Use buttermilk that is quite acid but not rancid.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 50 minutes.
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 pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,721 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,973 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the loaf as the dough sets during baking.
- Sour buttermilk
- Provides the liquid and acidity that react with the carbonate of soda to lift the bread.
- Carbonate of soda
- Reacts with the acid in the buttermilk to produce carbon dioxide, leavening the bread without yeast.
- Pounded sugar
- Adds a little sweetness and helps browning in the crust.
The step that matters
Quickly form a firm dough with the sour buttermilk. Carbonate of soda starts releasing carbon dioxide as soon as it meets acid and liquid, so the dough should be mixed briefly and baked promptly to keep the gas in 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.
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.