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Bread

Mush Bread

A sweet bread made with molasses, ginger, cinnamon, brown sugar, flour, eggs, and milk, baked in an oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By New Orleans Federation of Clubs · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mush Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Put one pint sweet milk on to heat and when hot sift in one cup meal, stirring constantly until smooth and stiff.

  2. Add one heaping tablespoon butter and take off to cool, then add lightly beaten yolks of four eggs, then the whites, and pour into buttered baking pans.

  3. Set the pan in a larger pan of hot water and bake in oven for about 20 minutes.

  4. Stir one cup of butter and one-half cup of brown sugar to a cream.

  5. Add one-half cup molasses, one cup sweet milk, one tablespoon ginger and one teaspoon cinnamon.

  6. Beat three eggs, whites and yolks separate, add two cups of flour and one teaspoon soda, then add two cups more of flour.

Bake

  1. Combine one cup of molasses, one-half teaspoon soda, one cup of melted lard, two eggs, one-half teaspoon cinnamon, two teaspoons ginger, a pinch of salt, one cup buttermilk, and flour to make a thick batter.

  2. Bake in slow oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

797Calories
27 gProtein
14 gFat
138 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Molasses1 tbsp (20g)58
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2
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 New Orleans Federation of Clubs. 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. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and moisture to the batter.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the batter its body and crumb.
Butter (in the method)
Adds richness and tenderness through fat in the batter.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, molasses, cinnamon, sugar, flour, egg):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, molasses, cinnamon, sugar, flour, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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Soft 46Molasses 7Hard 5Sponge 4Colonial 3Pudding 3 See all 65 →

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