Name: Graham Bread
Ingredients: ½ teaspoon salt; ½ yeast cake, dissolved in lukewarm water; 1 quart lukewarm water; equal amounts of white flour and graham flour, mixed moderately stiff; 1 cup molasses; 1 teaspoon anise seed; 1 tablespoon sugar; additional white flour for kneading

Why it works: Flour and anise work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 270 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Graham Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

½ teaspoon salt
½ yeast cake, dissolved in lukewarm water
1 quart lukewarm water
equal amounts of white flour and graham flour, mixed moderately stiff
1 cup molasses
1 teaspoon anise seed
1 tablespoon sugar
additional white flour for kneading

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

Dissolve the yeast cake in lukewarm water and combine with 1 quart of lukewarm water.
Add equal amounts of white flour and graham flour to form a moderately stiff dough.
Set the dough aside to rise.
Mix in the molasses, anise seed, and sugar.
Knead the dough with additional white flour until moderately stiff.

Shape and bake

Place the dough in pans to rise again.
Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for one hour.
Butter the top of the baked bread.

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.

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.

Flour + anisetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together270 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,429 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Anise + sugartop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together328 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Yeast cake: Ferments the dough, producing gas that makes it rise.
Graham flour: Gives the bread its coarse, hearty texture and brown color.
White flour: Provides gluten structure so the dough holds its shape and rise.
Molasses: Adds moisture, sweetness and a deep color to the crumb.