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Graham Bread

A loaf of bread made with graham flour, white flour, buttermilk, raisins, soda, and optional molasses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Chapel, Inie Gage, Mrs. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 ingredients
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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 ↓

Graham Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Dissolve the soda in a tablespoonful of hot water.

  2. Add the dissolved soda to the buttermilk and stir until it foams.

  3. Add the molasses, salt, and brown sugar to the mixture and stir.

  4. Mix the raisins with the flour and stir into the mixture, beating thoroughly.

Bake

  1. Bake in a gas oven for 1 hour.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

715Calories
22 gProtein
10 gFat
136 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 7 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Cakenot in our table0

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

By Chapel, Inie Gage, Mrs. [from old catalog]. 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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Raisin + breadtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,111 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Buttermilk + raisintop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together189 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Flour + breadtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,383 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and bread barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,383 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

Buttermilk
Its acidity reacts with the soda, producing gas that helps the bread rise.
Soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to release carbon dioxide, lightening the loaf.
Graham flour
Its bran and coarse particles give the bread its hearty texture and brown colour.
Raisins
Add pockets of sweetness and moisture throughout the loaf.

The step that matters

Beating the batter thoroughly. Beating after the flour and raisins are added develops gluten in the batter, giving the loaf structure and an even crumb. Stirring too little can leave dry flour pockets and a crumbly texture.

“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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