White Sandwich Bread Lab150 recipes
← White Sandwich Bread Lab

What goes into white sandwich bread

The main ingredient list of all 150 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

  • Most white sandwich bread recipes use butter (68%); 24% use oil.
  • For sugar, 74% use white sugar alone, 15% honey or maple syrup (with or without sugar), and 8% no sugar at all.
  • Of the recipes with yeast, 47% call for instant or rapid-rise yeast, 26% fresh yeast, and 14% active dry yeast.
  • For the liquid, 44% use water and milk together, 33% water alone, and 16% milk alone.

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.

Butter, oil or both

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

Oil includes olive oil (5%).

White, brown or a syrup

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

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

Instant or active dry yeast

Among the 149 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 150 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%

    150 recipes · median 9 g

  2. Yeast99%

    149 recipes · median 9 g

  3. Water80%

    121 recipes · median 250 g

  4. All-purpose flour79%

    119 recipes · median: all of the flour

  5. Granulated sugar77%

    116 recipes · median 20 g

  6. Butter68%

    102 recipes · median 46 g

  7. Milk62%

    94 recipes · median 203 g

  8. Bread flour21%

    32 recipes · median: all of the flour

  9. Vegetable oil19%

    29 recipes · median 37 g

  10. Eggs15%

    23 recipes · median 54 g (about 1 large egg)

  11. Honey14%

    21 recipes · median 30 g

  12. Olive oil5%

    8 recipes · median 37 g

Toppings and extras

8% of recipes (12 of 150) 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.