Icelandic · bread

Rúgbrauð (Icelandic Dark Rye Bread)

Rúgbrauð (Icelandic Dark Rye Bread) reads sweetness 6.2, richness 4.6 and sourness 3.7 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Icelandic bread, about 14 hr 13 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

• Umami & Savory — 3.9 / 10
• Sweet & Fruity — 6.2 / 10
• Sour & Bright — 3.7 / 10
• Bitter & Earthy — 1.2 / 10
• Rich & Fat — 4.8 / 10
• Aromatic & Spice — 0.6 / 10

The measured notes (of 18)

Sweetness 6.2 · Richness 4.6 · Sourness 3.7 · Salinity 3.6 · Funk & Ferment 2.5 · Earthy 1.2 · Umami 0.7 · Floral 0.6

What's in it (10)

• wholegrain rye flour — 500 g
• all-purpose flour — 250 g
• golden syrup — 200 g
• caster sugar — 100 g
• buttermilk — 500 g
• regular milk — 500 g
• baking soda — 10 g
• baking powder — 10 g
• salt — 7 g
• butter — 20 g

Time & effort: about 14 hr 13 min (10 hr 13 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 165.8 kcal, 10.8 g protein, 1.4 g fat, 27.7 g carbs

Dietary: Vegetarian · Contains dairy — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (9 steps)

1. Butter two 1 L loaf tins or two clean metal cans heavily, right into the corners.
2. Whisk the rye flour, plain flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl.
3. Whisk the syrup and sugar into the buttermilk and milk until dissolved.
4. Pour the wet into the dry and stir just until no dry flour remains. This is a batter, not a dough, and there is no yeast and no kneading anywhere in it — the rise is chemical and the bread is dense by design.
5. Divide between the tins, cover each tightly with buttered foil, and stand them in a deep roasting tray. Pour boiling water into the tray to come halfway up the tins.
6. Bake at 100°C for 10 hours. Top the water up whenever it gets low. The low temperature and the very long time are the whole recipe: at no point does the crust brown, and the deep colour and malty sweetness come from sugars caramelising and browning slowly inside the loaf over hours.
7. In southern Iceland this bread is still made by burying a sealed pot in the hot ground near a geothermal field at Laugarvatn or Hveragerði and digging it up a day later, which is why it is also called hverabrauð, hot-spring bread. The oven method above copies what the ground does — a steady hundred degrees, sealed and moist, for as long as it takes.
8. Cool the loaves completely in the tins, then turn them out and wrap them. Slice very thinly with a sharp knife and eat with cold salted butter, smoked lamb or pickled herring. It keeps for a week and is better on the second day.
9. Substitutions: dark treacle can stand in for the golden syrup.

Dishes with a similar flavor shape

• Cornbread — Southern
• Peggy’S Cornbread — American
• Túrógombóc (Cottage Cheese Dumplings) — Hungarian
• Pastelitos Criollos — Argentine
• Pan Cubano (Cuban Bread) — Cuban

Keep reading: what sweetness, richness, sourness mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.