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
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.
Make the sponge
Make a sponge as for white bread.
Make a hole in the flour. Add sugar. Add butter. Add milk. Add yeast. Do not stir after adding ingredients.
Let it sit in a cool place overnight.
Mix and shape
Knead in the Graham flour, sifting only part of it.
Add 2-3 tablespoons of molasses.
In a separate bowl, mix the beaten yolks of 3 eggs, ½ cup of butter, and 1 cup of sugar. Combine this mixture with about a quart of bread dough.
Mix well. Knead for 15 minutes.
Let it rise again until 4 p.m.
Cut out rolls. Space them apart in the pan. Let them sit in a warm place for 30 minutes.
Form into little cakes. Place them close together.
Rub the tops with a mixture of sugar and water. Sprinkle with dry sugar.
Bake
Bake for 15 minutes at 350°F (175°C).
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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 bread its coarse, hearty texture.
- Yeast
- Produces gas during fermentation, which makes the dough rise and become light.
- Eggs
- Yolks add richness and help bind the enriched dough, giving a tender crumb.
- Butter
- Adds fat that softens the crumb and gives a rich flavor.
- Molasses (in the method)
- Adds sweetness, dark color and moisture to the dough.
The step that matters
Let the dough rise in the cool overnight sponge without stirring. Yeast works slowly in a cool sponge; stirring after the ingredients are added knocks out the gas and can stop the gradual rise that gives a light texture.
“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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