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Bread

Graham Bread

A quick bread made with bread flour, graham flour, molasses, sugar, sour milk, baking soda, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By United Methodist Church (Grayville, Ill.) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Graham Bread

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Sift one and one-half cups bread flour.

  2. Add one and one-half cups graham flour (not sifted).

  3. Add a pinch of salt.

  4. Add one-half cup white granulated sugar.

  5. Add two-thirds cup molasses.

  6. Add one and one-half cups sour milk, in which one teaspoon baking soda has been dissolved.

  7. Bake one and one-half hours in a slow oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

653Calories
21 gProtein
9 gFat
120 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Sour Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By United Methodist Church (Grayville, Ill.). 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. 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.

  1. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Bread + flourtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,383 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Bread flour
Builds the structure that holds the loaf together.
Graham flour
Adds bran and a coarser, nutty texture to the crumb.
Molasses (in the method)
Adds sweetness, moisture and a dark colour, and helps browning.
Sour milk
Supplies moisture and acidity that reacts with the soda to lift the dough.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to produce gas that makes the bread rise.

The step that matters

Add the soda to the sour milk. Baking soda must be fully dissolved in the sour milk before mixing, so it reacts evenly with the acid. Uneven distribution leaves pockets of soda that can taste bitter and cause uneven rising.

“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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