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War Breads

A loaf of bran bread made with sour milk, brown sugar, bran flour, whole wheat flour, raisins, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Chapel, Inie Gage, Mrs. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 21 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 ↓

War Breads

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Gather two cups sour milk, two level teaspoons soda, one cup brown sugar, one teaspoon salt, two cups bran flour, two cups whole wheat flour, one cup raisins, and one cup flour to mix with raisins.

  2. Pour boiling water over the raisins, let stand for ten minutes, then drain and cut in halves. Save one cup of flour to mix with raisins later.

Make the batter

  1. Dissolve soda in a little hot water, add to sour milk and stir.

  2. Add sugar and salt, then flour. Beat thoroughly.

Bake

  1. Bake very slowly for one hour in a 5x9-inch tin, producing a loaf about four inches high.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

773Calories
22 gProtein
10 gFat
151 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Sour Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Molasses1 tbsp (20g)58
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 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. Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  3. Milk + teatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together738 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  4. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sour milk
Provides moisture and acidity that reacts with the soda to help the loaf rise.
Soda
Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to release gas, lifting the loaf.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture and a deeper colour to the crumb.
Bran flour
Adds fibre and a coarse, hearty texture while giving the loaf its structure.
Whole wheat flour
Adds body and structure along with a nutty flavour and chewier crumb.
Raisins
Add sweetness and moisture, with chewy pockets throughout the loaf.

The step that matters

Dissolve the soda and mix it into the sour milk right away. Soda only lifts the loaf when it meets the acid in the sour milk. If it sits undissolved or waits too long before the flour goes in, the gas escapes early and the loaf bakes up dense.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Peachfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, flour, wheat, molasses, tea. 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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