Name: Salt Rising Bread
Ingredients: 1½ pints boiling water; ⅓ cup fresh sweet milk; a pinch of salt; a pinch of sugar; 3 tablespoons cornmeal; flour (enough to make a stiff batter); 2 quarts warm water (not scalding) or equal parts sweet milk and water; 1 heaping tablespoon lard

Why it works: Milk and flour 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 Rising Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

1½ pints boiling water
⅓ cup fresh sweet milk
a pinch of salt
a pinch of sugar
3 tablespoons cornmeal
flour (enough to make a stiff batter)
2 quarts warm water (not scalding) or equal parts sweet milk and water
1 heaping tablespoon lard

Directions

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

Prepare the starter

In a bowl, combine boiling water, fresh milk, salt, and sugar. Let cool for a few minutes.
Add cornmeal and enough flour to create a stiff batter.
Place the batter in a Mason jar inside a larger container filled with warm water to maintain a temperature of about 90°F (32°C).
Beat the batter with a spoon four times, thirty minutes apart.
Once the batter has risen to the top of the jar, sift and warm the flour.

Make the dough

Pour the batter into the center of the flour, adding warm water or a mix of warm water and milk.
Stir until thick, then cover with flour and let it rise until the sponge bursts through.
Add lard and knead into a soft dough.

Shape and bake

Place the dough in well-greased warm pans and let it rise until doubled in size.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 45 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.

Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Milk and flour 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

Cornmeal: Provides the starch and grainy base that feeds the batter's fermentation.
Flour: Forms the structure of the batter and dough so the bread can hold its rise.
Lard: Adds fat that softens the dough and gives a tender crumb.
Fresh sweet milk: Adds richness and helps the crumb brown lightly in the oven.

The step that matters

Holding the starter at about 90°F (32°C). Salt rising bread relies on wild bacteria rather than yeast, and they ferment best at a steady warm temperature. If the batter gets too cold the rise stalls; if it gets scalding, the bacteria are killed and the bread will not rise.

“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.