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Graham Bread

A yeast bread made with graham flour, white flour, milk, molasses, butter, salt, and yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Graham Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Melt the butter in the scalded milk.

  2. Cool the mixture to lukewarm and add all the ingredients, including the yeast softened in the water.

  3. Beat thoroughly and set aside to rise until light.

Shape and bake

  1. Turn the dough into a long, narrow pan and let it rise again until light.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for about 1 hour.

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 + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Graham flour
Provides the bran and whole-grain body that gives the loaf its brown, hearty texture.
White flour
Supplies gluten that builds structure and lets the dough hold its rise.
Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise until light.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the crust brown during baking.
Milk
Adds richness and softness to the crumb and helps the dough brown.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and gives a softer texture.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture to lukewarm before adding the yeast. Yeast is killed by high heat, so the scalded milk and butter must be cooled to lukewarm before the yeast goes in. If it is too hot, the dough will not rise properly.

“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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