Name: Brown Bread
Ingredients: ⅔ cup Orleans molasses; 1 cup sweet milk; 1 cup sour milk; 3 teaspoons baking soda (or baking powder); 1 cup all-purpose flour; 1 cup cornmeal; 1 cup Graham flour; a pinch of salt

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

Make the batter

In a large bowl, combine the molasses, sweet milk, and sour milk.
Add the baking soda and mix well.
Stir in the all-purpose flour, cornmeal, Graham flour, and salt until fully combined.

Steam

Pour the mixture into a greased steaming mold.
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).
Molasses + milktop 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

Molasses: Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture to the batter.
Sour milk: Its acidity reacts with the baking soda so the bread rises.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to produce gas that lightens the bread.
All-purpose flour: Provides the main structure that holds the bread together.
Cornmeal: Adds a coarser texture and body to the crumb.
Graham flour: Adds a nutty flavour and a denser, wholesome texture.

“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.