Why it works: Molasses and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Brown Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the mush
Stir cornmeal into boiling water to make a good mush and cook for a few minutes.
Remove from heat and add molasses, sugar, and salt; let it cool.
Mix and shape the dough
Add bread sponge and stir in enough flour to allow it to be molded on a board.
Mold the dough for 15 minutes and place it in baking pans to rise.
Bake
When ready, place in a 300°F (150°C) oven and bake for 1 hour.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Bread + flourtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,383 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Molasses + breadtop 31% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together529 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Bread and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,383 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
- Cornmeal
- Forms the mush that gives the bread its body and a coarse, moist crumb.
- Porto rico molasses
- Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture, and helps the crumb brown in the oven.
- Bread sponge
- Provides the yeast fermentation that makes the dough rise.
- Flour
- Adds gluten structure so the dough holds its shape when molded.
The step that matters
Letting the mush cool before adding the sponge. Yeast in the bread sponge is killed by hot liquid, so the mush must cool enough before the sponge is added for the dough to 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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