Why it works: Wheat and corn match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 465 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
Brown Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sponge
Thicken water with corn meal until it resembles mush.
Put the mixture into a mixing bowl and add molasses.
When cool, dissolve the yeast in tepid water and add to the bowl.
Make and rise the dough
Mix in wheat flour and knead thoroughly.
Let the dough rise overnight.
In the morning, shape into loaves, handling as little as possible.
Let the loaves rise until very light and bake like wheat bread.
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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Wheat + corntop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together465 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + corntop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Molasses + wheattop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together702 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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 a rich flavour to the bread.
- Yeast
- Produces gas that leavens the dough so it rises and becomes light.
- Wheat flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the loaves structure and chew.
- Corn meal
- Thickened into mush with the water, adding body and moisture to the dough.
The step that matters
Shape the loaves gently. Handling the dough as little as possible keeps the gas bubbles and gluten structure intact, so the loaves stay light rather than deflating.
“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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