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Bread

Bran Bread

A loaf of whole wheat bran bread with raisins, brown sugar, molasses, and sour milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Bran Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Grease a loaf pan with lard.

Make the batter

  1. Dissolve the baking soda in a portion of the sour milk.

  2. Sift the baking soda with the whole wheat flour.

  3. Mix all ingredients together until well combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

  2. Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven.

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 + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  3. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Raisin + molassestop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Whole wheat flour
Provides the main structure and a hearty, nutty flavour.
Sterilized bran
Adds fibre and a coarse, dense texture while absorbing liquid.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with baking soda to help the bread rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in sour milk to release gas that lifts the loaf.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture and some browning to the crust.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep flavour and a darker colour to the crumb.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in a portion of the sour milk. Baking soda needs an acid to release carbon dioxide. Dissolving it first spreads it evenly through the liquid, so the batter rises uniformly rather than in patches.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wheat, flour, sugar, molasses, milk):

  1. Raisinthe original
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Blueberryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against wheat, flour, sugar, molasses, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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