Name: Brown Bread
Ingredients: 2 cups sour milk; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 2 cups sweet milk; 1 cup molasses; 1 teaspoon salt; 3 cups cornmeal; 2 cups graham flour

Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Brown Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the batter

In a large bowl, combine sour milk, baking soda, sweet milk, molasses, and salt.
Mix in cornmeal and graham flour until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased loaf pan.

Steam

Steam for 3 hours.

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.

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.

Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,429 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,243 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Milk and flour 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

Sour milk: Its acidity reacts with the baking soda and adds a tangy flavor.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to produce gas that lightens the batter.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, moisture, and a dark color.
Cornmeal: Gives the bread a coarse, crumbly texture and body.
Graham flour: Provides structure and a nutty, wholesome flavor.
Sweet milk: Adds moisture and softens the batter.

“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.