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Bread

Federal Bread

A yeast-free bread made with eggs, butter, lard, baking soda, cream of tartar, flour, buttermilk, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Federal Bread

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the dough

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, beat the eggs and mix in the butter and lard.

  3. Add the cream of tartar, baking soda, and sugar, then mix well.

  4. Gradually add the flour and enough buttermilk to form a dough.

Rise and bake

  1. Let the dough rise until it is light.

  2. Shape the dough and place it in a baking pan.

  3. Bake until golden brown.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Cream + buttermilktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together674 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the dough and add richness and structure as they set in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the cream of tartar and buttermilk to release gas that lightens the bread.
Cream of tartar
Provides acid that activates the baking soda and helps the crumb stay tender.
Flour
Forms the gluten network and main structure of the dough.
Buttermilk
Moistens the flour to form dough and adds acidity that works with the baking soda.
Butter and lard
Add fat that tenderizes the crumb and contributes to browning.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until it is light. Rising traps gas produced by the baking soda and acid reaction, which lightens the texture. Under-rising gives a dense loaf, while the gas released in the mix fades if the dough waits too long before baking.

“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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