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Bread

Graham Bread

A yeast-leavened bread using graham flour, molasses, and a sponge.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and wheat 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 ↓

Graham 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.

Make the sponge

  1. Make a sponge with white flour, half milk, half cold water, using ⅔ cup homemade yeast.

  2. In the morning, take 4 tablespoons of the sponge, add 3 tablespoons of molasses, and a little milk or water.

  3. Stir in enough Graham flour to form a thick batter.

Shape and steam

  1. Let the mixture rise, then shape it like white bread.

  2. For the brown bread, mix 1 quart of light bread sponge with ½ cup molasses and enough unbolted wheat meal to form a stiff dough.

  3. Grease a deep pan, place the dough inside, cover, and steam over hot water for 30 minutes.

Bake

  1. Finally, bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.

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. Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Bread + wheattop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together209 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

White flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the sponge its structure and elasticity.
Homemade yeast
Produces gas that makes the sponge and dough rise and become airy.
Graham flour
Adds bran and whole-grain texture, giving the batter a coarser, heartier crumb.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and a darker color to the brown bread.
Unbolted wheat meal
Provides the bulk and coarse whole-grain texture of the stiff brown dough.

The step that matters

Steaming the dough. Steaming keeps the dough moist while it cooks through, so the loaf does not dry out or form a hard crust before the center is set.

“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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