IllustrationWhy it works: Flour and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and 10,318 recipes mention both. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Mix two cups of Graham flour, one cup of wheat flour, two large spoons of molasses, a little salt, one yeast cake or half cup of yeast, and warm water enough to make a very stiff batter.
Put the dough in a bake tin, and when it is light enough, bake in a good oven for three-quarters of an hour.
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.
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Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Flour + molassestop 9% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together10,318 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour and molasses share little aroma chemistry, yet 10,318 recipes mention both: they likely 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 coarse bran and body that give this brown bread its structure.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, moisture, and the dark color typical of brown bread.
- Yeast
- Ferments the dough so it rises and becomes light before baking.
The step that matters
Letting the dough rise until light. Yeast needs time to produce gas that raises the stiff batter; baking before it is light yields a dense loaf.
“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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