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Bread

Salt-raising Bread

A bread made by fermenting a salt and sugar batter with coarse flour, then adding milk and yeast, and baking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Salt-raising Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA steady oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the starter

  1. Scald a quart tin cup or earthen milk pitcher, then fill it one-third full with warm water.

  2. Add salt, brown sugar, and enough coarse flour to make a batter.

  3. Place the cup in a closed vessel half-filled with moderately hot water.

  4. Maintain an even temperature.

  5. Add a teaspoon of flour once or twice during fermentation.

  6. After about five hours, sift flour into a pan.

  7. Make an opening in the center.

  8. Pour in the yeast mixture.

Mix and shape

  1. Add warm milk and stir rapidly into a pulpy mass.

  2. Cover the sponge.

  3. Keep warm for an hour.

  4. Knead into loaves.

  5. Add flour to achieve the proper consistency.

  6. Place in warm, greased pans.

  7. Cover.

  8. Let rise until light.

Bake and store

  1. Bake in a steady oven at 350°F (175°C).

  2. Let steam escape when done.

  3. Wrap in damp towels.

  4. Store in closed earthen jars until needed.

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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Coarse flour
Feeds the fermentation of the starter, forming the batter that develops the leaven.
Flour
Forms the sponge and dough structure that traps gas and holds the loaf's shape.
Warm milk
Adds moisture and richness to the sponge, softening the crumb.
Brown sugar
Provides a small amount of food for the starter's fermentation and adds mild sweetness.
Salt
Controls fermentation pace and adds flavor to the dough.

The step that matters

Maintaining an even temperature during fermentation. Fermentation speed depends on steady warmth. Temperature swings can stall the starter or let it sour too quickly, leaving the dough flat or off-tasting.

“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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