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 ↓
Brown Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Mix the batter
Mix the white flour, cornmeal, molasses, buttermilk, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl until well combined.
Fold in the chopped raisins.
Steam
Pour the mixture into well-buttered molds.
Steam the molds for three and a half 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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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,721 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Molasses + buttermilktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together526 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,577 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 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
- White flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the loaf together as it sets.
- Cornmeal
- Adds a coarser, slightly crumbly texture to the bread.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, moisture, depth of flavour and a dark colour.
- Buttermilk
- Adds moisture and acidity, which tenderises the crumb and reacts with the baking soda.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic buttermilk and molasses to produce gas that lightens the bread.
The step that matters
Mix until well combined. Baking soda must be evenly distributed through the batter so it reacts uniformly with the acids in the buttermilk and molasses. Uneven mixing gives pockets of bitter soda and a coarse, unevenly risen loaf.
“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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