Why it works: Flour and wheat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,373 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. 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.
Prepare
Prepare the sponge with hop yeast the night before.
In the morning, combine the sponge, molasses, warm water, and butter or lard in a bowl. Stir thoroughly with a spoon.
Make and rise the dough
Add the graham flour and enough wheat flour to create a very stiff batter.
Let the mixture rise slowly until very light.
Shape and bake
Divide into two loaves and place in tins.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until done.
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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Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + wheattop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,002 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Molasses + wheattop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together702 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
- Sponge
- Hop yeast in the sponge ferments the dough, producing gas that makes it rise.
- Graham flour
- Bran and germ add coarse texture and a nutty, wholesome flavour to the loaf.
- Wheat flour
- Adds gluten, giving the stiff batter enough structure to hold its shape while rising.
- New orleans molasses
- Adds sweetness, dark colour, and moisture, and feeds the yeast.
- Butter or lard
- Adds fat, which softens the crumb and gives a tender texture.
The step that matters
Let the mixture rise slowly until very light. Under-proofed dough stays dense and heavy, while over-proofed dough can collapse. Yeast activity and gas trapping must be judged by how light the dough feels, so the loaf rises well in the oven.
“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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