French Bread Lab138 recipes
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What goes into French bread

The main ingredient list of all 138 recipes, with names merged so one choice counts once: unsalted and salted butter are butter, light and dark brown sugar are brown sugar, kosher and table salt are salt. Different flours stay apart. Frosting, glaze and other extras are counted on their own at the end.

In short

  • For sugar, 68% use no sugar at all, 24% white sugar alone, and 6% honey or barley malt (with or without sugar).
  • Of the recipes with yeast, 43% call for instant or rapid-rise yeast, 35% fresh yeast, and 13% active dry yeast.
  • For the liquid, 92% use water alone and 5% water and milk together.
  • For flour, 60% use all-purpose flour alone, 13% bread flour alone, and 3% all-purpose flour and bread flour together.

The main choices

Each block sorts every recipe into one group by a single decision. Amounts are the median among recipes in that group, scaled to 500 g of flour, the size of a typical loaf. The recipe named under each group is the one in it closest to the typical loaf on every ingredient.

White, brown or a syrup

Each recipe counted once, by the sweeteners in its main ingredient list.

"With honey or barley malt" means any liquid sweetener (honey, barley malt and molasses), with or without dry sugar.

Instant or active dry yeast

Among the 130 recipes with yeast, by the type the ingredient list names.

Rapid-rise, quick-rise and bread machine yeast count as instant.

Water, milk or something richer

Each recipe counted once, by the liquids in its main ingredient list.

Which flour

Each recipe counted once, by the flours it combines.

How often each ingredient appears

Share of the 138 recipes that list it at least once, for every ingredient in 5% or more of them. The median amount is among recipes that use it and give a weighable amount, scaled to 500 g of flour; for a flour, it is that flour's share of all the flour in the recipe.

  1. Salt100%

    138 recipes · median 10 g

  2. Water99%

    137 recipes · median 332 g

  3. Yeast94%

    130 recipes · median 6 g

  4. All-purpose flour79%

    110 recipes · median: all of the flour

  5. Granulated sugar24%

    34 recipes · median 8 g

  6. Bread flour20%

    28 recipes · median: all of the flour

  7. Sourdough starter18%

    25 recipes · median 88 g

  8. Olive oil10%

    15 recipes · median 25 g

  9. Milk6%

    9 recipes · median 150 g

  10. Vegetable oil6%

    9 recipes · median 26 g

  11. Whole wheat flour6%

    9 recipes · median 25% of the flour

  12. Rye flour5%

    8 recipes · median 9% of the flour

  13. Butter5%

    7 recipes · median 19 g

  14. Spelt flour5%

    7 recipes · median 56% of the flour

Toppings and extras

6% of recipes (9 of 138) list something beyond the main recipe: a frosting, glaze, filling, crumb topping, a boiling bath or a sprinkle on top. None of it is counted above.

How the ingredients are counted

A recipe uses an ingredient when any line of its main ingredient list names it. Names are merged by the words in them, so “1 cup unsalted butter, softened” and “salted butter” are both butter, and a line that offers a choice (“walnuts or pecans”) counts as the first one named. Canola, vegetable and other neutral oils are one oil; coconut and olive oil are listed on their own.

Lines only for greasing the pan are left out. Lines for brushing, sprinkling or serving, and lines that belong to a frosting, glaze, filling or topping, count as extras.

Amounts come from the grams on each recipe page: printed by the source, or converted from cups and spoons with standard densities. Scaling them to 500 g of flour lets a small recipe and a double batch line up. Percentages are rounded down.