Why it works: Potato and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓
Graham Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the sponge
Dissolve the glucose in ½ cup of hot water.
Add enough warm milk to make 2 quarts.
Warm the mixture to 80°F (27°C).
Dissolve the compressed yeast, sugar, and salt in the mixture.
Add the potato yeast to the mixture.
Pour the mixture into a well in the flour.
Mix in enough flour to make a sponge as thick as cream.
Let it stand for 30 minutes.
Knead and shape
Knead the dough thoroughly.
Let it rise until light, about 1 hour.
Shape the dough into loaves.
Place them in proving boxes.
Cover with wax paper.
Let them prove for about 1 hour, ensuring they do not run together.
Mold the dough into pans.
Let it prove again.
Bake
Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).
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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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + potatotop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the loaves their structure.
- Graham flour
- Adds bran and whole-grain flavor and a coarser, denser crumb.
- Lard
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and softens the texture.
- Glucose
- Provides fermentable sugar that feeds the yeast and aids browning.
- Potato yeast
- Acts as a leavening starter that makes the dough rise.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and richness, and its milk sugars help browning.
The step that matters
Mix in enough flour to make a sponge as thick as cream. The sponge must be fluid enough to ferment well but not so thin it loses structure. Too much flour slows the yeast; too little leaves a slack batter that will not hold its shape.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, milk):
- Arrowrootfits better
- Sweet potatofits better
- Beetrootfits about as well
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, milk. 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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