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Bread

Bran Bread

A yeast‑leavened loaf made with potato water, molasses, bran, and white flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Bran Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sponge

  1. Dissolve the yeast cake in the warm water.

  2. Add the dissolved yeast to the potato water along with the salt.

  3. Stir in 2 cups of flour and set the mixture to rise in a warm place.

  4. Once light, mix in the molasses, sugar, and melted fat into the sponge.

Knead and rise

  1. Add the remaining flour and bran.

  2. Knead the dough thoroughly on a floured surface until it is soft but not too sticky.

  3. Let the dough rise in a warm place until it doubles in size.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the dough into loaves and let them rise again until doubled.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for one 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. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 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. Potato + sugartop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

White flour
Provides the gluten network that traps gas and gives the loaves their structure.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars and produces the gas that makes the dough rise.
Bran
Adds fiber and a coarser texture, and can weaken gluten so the loaf is denser.
Molasses
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness, color, and a deeper flavor.
Potato water
Supplies moisture and nutrients that help the yeast become active.

The step that matters

Knead until soft but not too sticky. Kneading develops gluten so the dough can hold gas. Too much added flour makes the loaf dry and dense, while a very sticky dough is hard to shape and may not hold its rise.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, flour, sugar. 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.

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