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 ↓
Indian Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Mix the batter
In a large bowl, combine sour milk, Indian meal, graham flour, molasses, and baking soda, then mix until well combined.
Steam
Pour the mixture into a steaming dish.
Steam for 3 hours.
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.
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Provides the acid that reacts with the baking soda and adds moisture to the batter.
- Indian meal
- Forms the main body of the bread and gives it a coarse, crumbly texture.
- Graham flour
- Adds structure and a nutty, wholesome flavor to the bread.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deep brown color.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to release gas that lightens the bread.
The step that matters
Mixing the batter and steaming it promptly. Baking soda starts reacting with the acid in sour milk as soon as they meet. Letting the batter sit before steaming lets much of that gas escape, so the bread may rise less.
“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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