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Bread

Quick Graham Bread

A quick bread made with molasses, sour milk, baking soda, salt, and Graham flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Quick Graham Bread

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the batter

  1. Dissolve the baking soda in a little hot water.

  2. In a bowl, mix the molasses, sour milk, and salt.

  3. Stir in the dissolved baking soda.

  4. Gradually add Graham flour until you achieve a stiff batter.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased mold.

  2. Let it rise for a while, then bake for two hours at 350°F (175°C).

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Molasses + milktop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk to produce gas, lifting the batter as it bakes.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds tang and moisture.
Graham flour
Provides the bulk and structure that holds the stiff batter together.
New orleans molasses
Adds sweetness, depth of flavor, and moisture, and helps the crust brown.

The step that matters

Stirring in the baking soda. Baking soda needs an acid to react and release gas. Once it is stirred into the sour milk mixture, the reaction starts, so the batter should go into the mold and into the oven without long delay to keep the rise.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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