Name: Brown Bread
Ingredients: 3 cups of graham flour; 4 cup of sweet milk; 1 cup of dark molasses; 1 quart graham flour; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon baking powder in flour; 1 teaspoon of soda; 1 pint buttermilk; 1 cup of baking molasses; 1 cup of raisins; a cup of raisins if preferred; 3 level teaspoons soda; 4 loaves

Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

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.

Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,721 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Molasses + buttermilktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together526 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,577 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 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

Graham flour: Provides the bulk and the coarse, hearty structure of the bread.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, moisture, and the dark color and flavor of the loaf.
Buttermilk: Its acidity reacts with soda to lift the crumb and keeps it tender.
Soda: Reacts with the acid in buttermilk and molasses to produce gas that makes the bread 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.