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Bread

Electric Brown Bread

A loaf of bread made with graham and wheat flour, milk, water, lard, molasses, and leavening agents.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Electric Brown 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 the dough

  1. Rub the lard into one part of the flour.

  2. Mix the baking powder into the other part of the flour.

  3. Combine both mixtures and form a well in the center.

  4. Dissolve the baking soda in the water along with the salt.

  5. Add the molasses and milk, then mix to form a smooth, slack dough.

Shape, rise and bake

  1. Shape the dough and place it in pans immediately.

  2. Set the pans in a warm place to rise until doubled.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

  4. Brush the bread with water or lard after baking.

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. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

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

  2. Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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 coarse body that gives brown bread its structure and rustic texture.
Wheat flour
Provides gluten for structure, helping the dough hold its shape and rise.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, softening the crumb and aiding browning.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and keeps the bread moist.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour and a deep flavour, and moisture to the loaf.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce carbon dioxide, helping the bread rise.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda with the salt in the water. Baking soda must be fully dissolved and evenly distributed, or pockets of alkali can form, leaving soapy or bitter spots and uneven rising in the loaf.

“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 brown bread recipes

Boston 349Steamed 107Pudding 51New England 20Ice Cream 14Biscuits 11 See all 420 →

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