No-Knead Bread Lab

Four styles in 136 no-knead bread recipes

Leave the recipe names aside and group the 136 recipes by their 4 ingredient ratios alone, so that recipes built alike land together. Each group is named only by the numbers: the ingredients where its recipes sit furthest from the middle of all 136.

The data splits best into four groups, and they separate: a silhouette of 0.32, on a scale where 0 is no separation and 1 is complete. They still touch at the edges, so a recipe near a boundary could sit in either.

The recipes on one map

Every recipe, placed on the two directions along which the ratios vary most (a principal component projection). Close dots are recipes built alike. The lettered rings mark the middle of each group.

ALess yeast66
BLess salt and water32
CWith fat19
DMore yeast and salt19

Across →: More salt and water, less yeast to the right; 36% of the variation.
Up ↑: More yeast, water and fat upward; 26% of the variation.

The four groups

ALess yeast

66 recipes · 49% of all 136 · median oven 450°F (230°C), 30 min

Where it differs from all recipes

Yeastmedian 0.3% vs 0.4% for all
average rank: 31st percentile of all recipes
Saltmedian 2% vs 2% for all
average rank: 62nd percentile of all recipes
Fatmedian 0% vs 0% for all
average rank: 41st percentile of all recipes · none in 98% (all recipes 80%)

Its median recipe, at 400 g flour

Median recipe of group A in grams, against the median of all recipes
Ingredient	Group A	All
Water	325 g	315 g
Salt	8 g	8 g
Yeast	1 g	1.5 g
Fat	none	none

Each line is the group's median for that ingredient, scaled to 400 g of flour.

Closest to the middle of the group

Mehrkornbrot ohne Kneten · bettybossi.chyeast 0.2% · salt 2.1%
No-Knead Olive Bread · 12tomatoes.comyeast 0.4% · salt 2.1%
No-Knead Salami Bread · foodnetwork.comyeast 0.4% · salt 2%
The Easiest No Knead Baguette Recipe · biggerbolderbaking.comyeast 0.2% · salt 2.1%
Jim Lahey’s No-Knead Bread · leitesculinaria.comyeast 0.2% · salt 2%

BLess salt and water

32 recipes · 24% of all 136 · median oven 450°F (230°C), 35 min

Where it differs from all recipes

Saltmedian 1.4% vs 2% for all
average rank: 17th percentile of all recipes
Watermedian 71% vs 79% for all
average rank: 27th percentile of all recipes
Yeastmedian 1.1% vs 0.4% for all
average rank: 66th percentile of all recipes

Its median recipe, at 400 g flour

Median recipe of group B in grams, against the median of all recipes
Ingredient	Group B	All
Water	285 g	315 g
Salt	6 g	8 g
Yeast	4 g	1.5 g
Fat	none	none

Each line is the group's median for that ingredient, scaled to 400 g of flour.

Closest to the middle of the group

pain en cocotte sans pétrissage aux grains de lin · amourdecuisine.frsalt 1.5% · water 75%
Pain très rapide sans pétrissage · chefsimon.comsalt 1.2% · water 74%
Pain sans pétrissage, version thermomix ! · ptitchef.comsalt 1.8% · water 74%
Mon pain cocotte · chefsimon.comsalt 1.3% · water 71%
Pain sans pétrissage ou baguette magique · cuisineaz.comsalt 1.6% · water 80%

CWith fat

19 recipes · 14% of all 136 · median oven 440°F (225°C), 35 min

Where it differs from all recipes

Fatmedian 6.3% vs 0% for all
average rank: 93rd percentile of all recipes · none in 0% (all recipes 80%)
Saltmedian 1.8% vs 2% for all
average rank: 43rd percentile of all recipes

Its median recipe, at 400 g flour

Median recipe of group C in grams, against the median of all recipes
Ingredient	Group C	All
Water	310 g	315 g
Salt	7 g	8 g
Yeast	2 g	1.5 g
Fat	25 g	none

Each line is the group's median for that ingredient, scaled to 400 g of flour.

Closest to the middle of the group

No Knead Salt Bread · okonomikitchen.comfat 6.5% · salt 1.7%
No knead bread met gepofte knoflook · ohmyfoodness.nlfat 6% · salt 2%
No-Knead Lean Dough Master Recipe · bakerbettie.comfat 6.7% · salt 2.1%

DMore yeast and salt

19 recipes · 14% of all 136 · median oven 450°F (230°C), 26 min

Where it differs from all recipes

Yeastmedian 1.7% vs 0.4% for all
average rank: 87th percentile of all recipes
Saltmedian 2.1% vs 2% for all
average rank: 73rd percentile of all recipes
Watermedian 85% vs 79% for all
average rank: 70th percentile of all recipes

Its median recipe, at 400 g flour

Median recipe of group D in grams, against the median of all recipes
Ingredient	Group D	All
Water	340 g	315 g
Salt	8 g	8 g
Yeast	7 g	1.5 g
Fat	none	none

Each line is the group's median for that ingredient, scaled to 400 g of flour.

Closest to the middle of the group

No-Knead Rustic Whole Wheat Bread · kingarthurbaking.comyeast 1.6% · salt 2.1%
No-Knead Bread Recipe (Easy Artisan Bread) · natashaskitchen.comyeast 1.7% · salt 2.1%
Everyday Artisan-Style Crusty Bread (No-Knead) · siftandsimmer.comyeast 1.6% · salt 2%

How the groups are found

Each ratio is converted to a z-score (how many standard deviations a recipe sits from the mean), capped at 3 so one extreme recipe cannot claim a group, and k-means sorts the recipes into k groups, trying k from 2 to 4. Each k runs from 16 fixed starting points and keeps the tightest result, so the page is the same on every build. No group may hold fewer than 14 recipes.

The number of groups is the one with the best silhouette, which compares how close each recipe is to its own group with how close it is to the next one. By number of groups: 2 groups 0.26 · 3 groups 0.26 · 4 groups 0.32. At 0.25 or more the page calls the groups separate; from 0.18 to 0.25, overlapping; under 0.18, no clear styles.

A group's name lists the one to three ingredients where its recipes rank furthest from the middle of all 136, on average. “More” and “less” are relative to the whole dataset, and the names say nothing about texture or taste, which the ratios alone do not show. The median recipe of a group is, like the typical recipe on the overview, the middle of each ingredient separately, not one real recipe. The recipes listed under each group are the ones nearest its center, at most two from any one site.