Name: Half Rye Bread with Molasses
Ingredients: 8 ounces coarse sea salt; 1½ pints New Orleans molasses (or 1½ pounds brown sugar); rye flour (for doughing); lard (for brushing the top)

Why it works: Rye and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,320 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Half Rye Bread with Molasses

Ingredients

8 ounces coarse sea salt
1½ pints New Orleans molasses (or 1½ pounds brown sugar)
rye flour (for doughing)
lard (for brushing the top)

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the sponge

Prepare a sponge with yeast and wheat flour, or use a white bread sponge.

Make the dough

Add rye flour to form the dough.
Mix in the salt and molasses (or brown sugar).

Prove and bake

Prove the dough and bake at 400°F (200°C) like other half rye breads.
Once baked, brush the top of the loaves with lard for a soft crust.

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.

Rye + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,320 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,429 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Molasses + ryetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together804 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

Rye flour: Forms the dough's structure, though it builds less gluten than wheat flour.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, moisture and a dark colour to the loaves.
Lard: Brushed on the baked top, it helps give the crust a soft finish.

“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.