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Bread

Graham Bread

A loaf made from graham flour, white flour, sugar or molasses, lard or beef fat, optional white sponge, and coarse sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓

Graham Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. Mix the graham flour and white flour together.

  2. Add sugar or molasses and lard or beef fat to the mixture.

  3. If using, incorporate the white sponge into the dough.

  4. Knead the dough until very soft.

Rise and bake

  1. Place the dough in a greased loaf pan and let it rise.

  2. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for longer than white bread.

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  2. Flour + beeftop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + beeftop 37% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,435 recipes

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

Flour and beef barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,677 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 wholegrain body that gives the bread its nutty, coarser texture.
White flour
Supplies gluten-forming protein so the loaf holds its shape and rises well.
Sugar or molasses
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning in the crust.
Lard or beef fat
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and softens the texture.

The step that matters

Knead the dough until very soft. Kneading develops the gluten network that traps gas during rising. Graham flour's bran cuts through gluten, so the dough needs enough working to stay elastic and hold its rise.

“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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