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 ↓
Bran Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the batter
In a bowl, mix salt and cream of tartar into the bran flour.
Add molasses and enough milk to form a stiff batter.
Dissolve baking soda in cold water and stir it into the batter quickly.
Bake
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake at 300°F (150°C) for one hour.
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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Flour + milktop 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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Cream + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cream + molassestop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,408 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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
- Bran flour
- Provides the main body of the bread and its structure as it sets.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the cream of tartar to produce gas that lifts the batter as it bakes.
- Cream of tartar
- Acts as an acid that activates the baking soda, helping the bread rise.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, moisture and a deeper browning in the baked bread.
The step that matters
Stir in the baking soda quickly. Baking soda starts reacting with the acid as soon as it meets the liquid. Stirring it in quickly and then baking promptly keeps the carbon dioxide bubbles trapped so the loaf rises instead of losing its lift.
“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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