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Bread

Raisin Bread

A sweet loaf made with milk, molasses, whole wheat flour, walnuts, and raisins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Raisin Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. In a large bowl, mix the milk or cream, baking soda, molasses, and salt.

  3. Gradually add the whole wheat flour, stirring until combined.

  4. Fold in the chopped walnuts and halved raisins.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan, ensuring it is about 5 inches thick.

  2. Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Wheat + walnuttop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together246 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  3. Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 acidity in sour milk or molasses to produce gas that lifts the loaf.
Whole wheat flour
Provides the structure of the loaf as its proteins and starch set during baking.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deep colour that contributes to browning.
Milk or cream
Supplies the liquid that hydrates the flour and dissolves the baking soda for even rising.
Raisins
Add pockets of moisture and sweetness throughout the crumb.

The step that matters

Testing for doneness. Whole wheat batter with molasses can look set on top while the centre is still wet. A toothpick inserted in the middle should come out clean, because undercooked centres collapse and turn gummy as they cool.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, molasses, wheat, flour, raisin):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Walnutthe original
  4. Flaxseedfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, molasses, wheat, flour, raisin. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

More raisin bread recipes

Pudding 13Cake 12Molasses 5Steamed 4English 3Spiced 3 See all 42 →

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