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Batter Bread

A batter bread made with white Indian meal, eggs, milk, salt, lard or butter, baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Batter Bread

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Batter Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the batter

  1. Soak the white Indian meal in boiling water overnight, enough to cover it.

  2. In the morning, add the beaten eggs, milk, salt, and lard or butter.

  3. If the batter is too thick, thin it with water until very thin.

  4. Beat the mixture hard for ten minutes.

Bake

  1. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until nicely browned.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

White indian meal
Forms the body of the bread; soaking it overnight softens the grain for a smoother batter.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the bread sets in the oven.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, and helps the batter brown during baking.
Lard or butter
Adds fat, which tenderizes the crumb and adds flavor.

The step that matters

Beating the batter for ten minutes. Vigorous beating incorporates air and develops the batter's structure, which helps the bread rise and set evenly in the oven.

“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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