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Bread

Brown Bread

A steamed raisin bread made with flour, buttermilk, soda, and raisins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Elizabeth Lyles Wilson (1860–1924) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Brown Bread

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 ↓

Brown Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Add 1 cup white flour.

  2. Add 1 cup New Orleans meal.

  3. Add 1 cup meal.

  4. Add 1 cup buttermilk.

  5. Add 1 teaspoon salt.

  6. Add 2 teaspoons soda. Mix well.

  7. Add 1 cup chopped raisins.

Steam

  1. Put into well buttered molds.

  2. Steam for three and one-half hours.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

715Calories
22 gProtein
10 gFat
136 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49

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

By Mary Elizabeth Lyles Wilson (1860–1924). 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Buttermilk
Adds acidity that reacts with the soda to lift the batter.
Soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to produce gas that leavens the bread.
White flour
Provides the main structure of the bread.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy pockets of moisture throughout the bread.

The step that matters

Add 2 teaspoons soda. Mix well.. Soda must be mixed evenly into the batter so it reacts with the buttermilk's acid throughout. Uneven mixing leaves dense spots or pockets of bitter residue.

“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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