Why it works: Buttermilk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Brown Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, mix buttermilk, molasses, sugar, and baking soda.
Add graham flour and corn meal, stirring until combined.
Steam
Pour the mixture into tin cans.
Steam the cans 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.
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.
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Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,721 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Buttermilk + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,973 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Buttermilk + molassestop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together526 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Flour + corntop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Buttermilk
- Provides acidity that reacts with baking soda to lift the batter.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic buttermilk and molasses to produce gas that leavens the bread.
- Graham flour
- Forms the bulk of the structure, giving the bread its body and coarse texture.
- Molasses
- Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweetness with a slight acidity.
- Corn meal
- Adds coarse texture and body to the crumb.
The step that matters
Steam the cans for 3 hours. Steaming keeps the bread moist and lets the leavening set the crumb gently. Steam must be kept steady and water topped up, since a drop in heat can leave the bread dense or gummy.
“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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