Skip to main content
Bread

Steam Graham Bread

A steamed bread made with graham flour, all-purpose flour, molasses, milk, baking powder, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Flour and milk 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 ↓

Steam Graham Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix the Graham flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt.

  2. Stir in the molasses and milk until well combined.

Steam

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased steaming mold.

  2. Steam for four 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.

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.

  1. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Molasses + milktop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Flour and milk 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

Graham flour
Provides the coarse bran and wheat flavor that give this bread its hearty, dense texture.
All-purpose flour
Adds gluten-forming structure so the bread holds together after steaming.
Baking powder
Releases gas as it reacts with moisture and heat, helping the bread rise and turn light.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, deep color, and moisture, and gives the bread its characteristic flavor.
Milk
Hydrates the flours and helps form the batter, adding moisture and tenderness.

The step that matters

Steam for four hours. Steam must stay steady and the mold must be sealed so the bread cooks through evenly. Water loss or uneven heat can leave the center gummy or dry the outside.

“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.

You might also like

CornbreadCornbread345 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding336 recipesMilk Bread RollsMilk Bread Rolls242 recipesPotato BreadPotato Bread124 recipes