Name: Barley and Wheat Bread
Ingredients: 2 cups barley flour; wheat flour (as needed); molasses (optional, in place of sugar)

Why it works: Barley and wheat match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 185 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓

Barley and Wheat Bread

Ingredients

2 cups barley flour
wheat flour (as needed)
molasses (optional, in place of sugar)

Directions

Prepare the dough using 2 cups of barley flour and enough wheat flour to achieve the desired consistency.
If desired, substitute molasses for sugar.

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.

Barley + wheattop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together185 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Barley + flourtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together582 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).