Why it works: Milk and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Graham Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Combine one pint milk and water (equal parts), one tablespoonful of sugar, and one teaspoonful of salt.
Add one compressed yeast cake.
Dissolve the yeast in one-half cupful of cold water; let it become lukewarm.
Add the yeast mixture, sugar, and salt to the milk mixture.
Mix in enough graham flour, sifted, to make a soft dough.
Flour the board well with white flour; turn out the dough and knead until it ceases to stick to the board.
Rise, shape and bake
Let rise for three hours, then shape into loaves.
Let rise one hour, or until it is light.
Bake.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 4 of 6 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
| Cake | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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 (in the method)
- Forms the bulk of the dough, giving the bread its structure and whole-grain texture.
- Milk
- Adds richness and softness to the crumb and helps the dough brown.
- Yeast
- Ferments the dough, producing gas that makes it rise and become light.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds a little sweetness and browning.
The step that matters
Kneading until the dough stops sticking. Kneading develops the gluten network that traps the gas from fermentation. Graham flour's bran cuts into that network, so the dough needs enough kneading to become smooth and elastic for a good 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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