Name: Graham Bread
Ingredients: 1 quart warm water; 1 tablespoon lard; 2 tablespoons white sugar; ½ cup yeast; about 1 quart all-purpose flour; 2 quarts Graham flour; 1 tablespoon salt; 2 tablespoons molasses

Why it works: Sugar and molasses 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 ↓

Graham Bread

Ingredients

Directions

In a large bowl, combine warm water, lard, white sugar, and yeast.
Add enough all-purpose flour to create a stiff batter, about 1 quart.
Cover and let it sit for 4 to 5 hours until it rises.
In another bowl, mix Graham flour, salt, and molasses.
Pour the risen sponge into the dry ingredients and mix well.
Knead the dough and shape it as desired.
Let it rise again before 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.

Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,429 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).