No-Knead Bread Lab
No-Knead Bread: what 136 recipes agree on
The long, slow Dutch-oven loaf: water, salt and a pinch of yeast per 100 g of flour.
136 recipes from 69 sites, each reduced to grams and written as baker's percentages: grams of each ingredient per 100 g of flour, so a small recipe and a double batch line up. Below: the typical loaf, how far recipes stray from it, and a page for every recipe with a link to the original.
Recipes
136
from 69 sites
Typical flour
400 g
about 3 1/4 cups
Oven
450°F
230°C · median of 118
Bake time
30 min
most 20 to 39 min
The typical loaf of no-knead bread
The median of all 136 recipes for each ingredient, scaled to 400 g of flour. No single recipe is exactly this: each line is the middle of its own distribution. “Most recipes” means the middle half, from the 25th to the 75th percentile.
| Ingredient | Grams |
|---|---|
| FlourThe scale for everything else | 400 gabout 3 1/4 cups |
| WaterMost recipes use 290 to 335 g | 315 gabout 1 1/3 cups |
| SaltMost recipes use 6 to 8 g | 8 g |
| YeastMost recipes use 1 to 5 g | 1.5 g |
| Fat80% use none; the rest mostly 13 to 26 g | none |
Bake450°F (230°C) for about 30 minutes.
Volumes are approximate: flour at 125 g a cup, butter or oil 225 g, milk and other liquids 240 g.
Every recipe, ingredient by ingredient
Each dot is a recipe, placed by grams of the ingredient per 100 g of flour (100% would be as much as the flour). The shaded band is the middle half of recipes and the line is the median.
Water
median 79% · most 73 to 84%
A wet dough is what lets time do the kneading: gluten forms on its own over the long rest.
Each dot is up to 3 recipes. range 60 to 95%
Salt
median 2% · most 1.6 to 2.1%
About 2% of the flour.
Each dot is up to 6 recipes. range 1 to 3%
Yeast
median 0.4% · most 0.2 to 1.2%
Very little yeast and 12 to 18 hours is the original method; faster versions use more yeast and a warmer rise.
Each dot is up to 3 recipes. range 0 to 2.2% · 6% use none
Fat
median 0% · 80% use none
The classic loaf uses none.
Each dot is up to 13 recipes. range 0 to 9.6% · those that use some, mostly 3.3 to 6.6%
Where recipes disagree
Measured by how far apart the 25th and 75th percentile recipes are. The widest gaps are where the choice of recipe matters most.
- Yeast. The middle half of recipes use 0.2 to 1.2% of the flour weight in yeast, so a recipe at the 75th percentile has 6.0 times as much as one at the 25th.
- Salt. The middle half of recipes use 1.6 to 2.1% of the flour weight in salt, so a recipe at the 75th percentile has 1.3 times as much as one at the 25th.
Recipes agree most on water: water 73 to 84% for the middle half.
Around the world
122 of the recipes come in 3 languages with enough of each to compare: English 82, French 24, German 16.
- French recipes use 19% less salt than English ones (1.6% against 2% of the flour weight).
What the words in titles mean
English recipes whose titles use a word, against the ones that do not. What recipe writers do when they pick the word, not proof that it makes the texture.
Recipes called “easy” (15) use about the same amounts as the rest on every ingredient measured here.
The most-reviewed recipes
32 no-knead bread recipes have 50 or more reader ratings. A rating count says how many people rated a page, which follows its traffic more than its quality. Against the other 104, medians per 100 g of flour, compared within each language:
On no ingredient do the most-reviewed recipes differ from the rest by more than chance would explain.
50+ ratings (32)the rest (104)middle half of all
Waterthe most-reviewed recipes 80% vs the rest 79%
Saltthe most-reviewed recipes 2% vs the rest 2%
Yeastthe most-reviewed recipes 0.4% vs the rest 0.4%
Fatthe most-reviewed recipes 0% vs the rest 0%
Most reviewed
- Pain Cocotte au thermomix · cookomix.com · French4.9 from 5,790 ratings
- No-Knead Crusty White Bread · kingarthurbaking.com4.7 from 1,355 ratings
- No-Knead Sourdough Bread · farmhouseonboone.com4.6 from 898 ratings
- Easy No-Knead Skillet Bread · bakerbettie.com4.5 from 851 ratings
- No-Knead Sourdough Bread · kingarthurbaking.com4.7 from 673 ratings
Oven temperature and time
118 of 136 recipes state an oven temperature, and 46% of those bake at 450°F (230°C). The middle half bake at 450 to 475°F. The other 18 do not say.
- 450°F55 recipes
- 475°F27 recipes
- 425°F12 recipes
- 500°F10 recipes
- 400°F6 recipes
- 375°F4 recipes
127 recipes state a bake time. Taking the middle of any stated range (“55 to 65 minutes” counts as 60), the median is 30 minutes and the middle half bake 20 to 39 minutes.
Temperature and time together
The single most common pairing is 450°F for 30 to 35 minutes, with 25 of the 115 recipes that state both.
Recipes to start with
Closest to the typical loaf
Nearest the median on every ingredient at once.
- No-Knead Salami Bread · foodnetwork.comwater 80% · salt 2%
- No knead kaas-ui brood · ohmyfoodness.nlwater 78% · salt 2%
- No-Knead Bread · wellplated.comwater 81% · salt 1.9%
- Easy No-Knead Sandwich Bread (5 Ingredients) · biggerbolderbaking.comwater 77% · salt 2%
- No-Knead Whole-Wheat Bread · leitesculinaria.comwater 83% · salt 2%
Most water
- Easy No Knead Bread (Dutch Oven Bread) · joyfoodsunshine.comwater 95% · salt 2.4%
- Easy No-Knead Peasant Bread · melskitchencafe.comwater 95% · salt 1.8%
- Mom's Fail-Proof No Knead Raisin Walnut Bread · tiffycooks.comwater 95% · salt 2.4%
Least water
- Pain Cocotte au thermomix · cookomix.comwater 60% · salt 1.2%
- Pain cocotte · cuisine.journaldesfemmes.frwater 60% · salt 2%
- Pain cocotte rustique · chefsimon.comwater 60% · salt 1.2%
Go deeper
- DiscoverEvery recipe plotted on any two ratios.
- CalculatorStart from the typical recipe, move the ratios, get grams.
- IngredientsWhich ingredients recipes use, and the choices they make.
- RatiosWhich ingredients rise and fall together.
- TimelineRecipes by publication year and how the typical one shifted.
- Around the WorldThe typical recipe in each language, and where French, German or Italian recipes part from English ones.
- All RecipesEvery recipe, sortable, with a page each.
- ClustersThe styles the numbers fall into.
- Decision TreeA few questions that narrow the recipes to the ones you want.
Top sources
- 12kingarthurbaking.com
- 8bettybossi.ch
- 7marcelpaa.com
- 6chefsimon.com
- 5ptitchef.com
- 4bakerbettie.com
- 4biggerbolderbaking.com
- 4breadtopia.com
- 4leitesculinaria.com
- 4savorthebest.com
- 312tomatoes.com
- 3cuisineaz.com
In 7 languages: English 82, French 24, German 16, Dutch 6, Italian 4, Spanish 3, Portuguese 1. Lines in other languages are read in their own units and words, and each recipe page links to the original. 69 sites in all. No site contributes more than 12 recipes.
How the numbers are made
Every ingredient line is converted to grams and grouped (butter and oil count as fat; white, brown and liquid sweeteners as sugar), then divided by the flour weight. That baker's percentage is the only comparison that holds across recipes of different sizes.
97% of the 783 ingredient lines got a weight. 48% of those weights were printed by the source; the rest were converted from cups and spoons with standard densities, so treat single recipes as close, not exact. Frosting, glaze, streusel and other toppings are listed on each recipe page but left out of the percentages.
A recipe outside the plausible range for any ingredient is left out rather than allowed to stretch every chart; it is usually a different dish with the same name or a misread line. Of the pages fetched, 144 were left out: 110 outside the plausible range on some ingredient (water 68, fat 17, salt 14, yeast 11), 27 with a title that names a different dish, 4 with no flour, or none that could be weighed, and 3 too many lines without an amount.
Every recipe page links to the original, which is where the method is. Recipe Lab does not republish instructions or photos.