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Bread

Oat Flake Bread

A moist oat bread made with molasses, buttermilk, raisins, and oat flakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour 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 ↓

Oat Flake Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA very slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

Make the batter

  1. Mix the baking soda with the buttermilk and molasses separately.

  2. Combine the buttermilk and molasses in a large bowl.

  3. Stir in the oat flakes, then add the flour and salt.

  4. Flour the raisins with a little extra flour and fold them into the mixture.

Bake

  1. Grease five 1-pound baking powder cans and fill them a little over half full with the batter.

  2. Cover the cans and bake for 1½ hours.

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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Molasses + buttermilktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together526 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to produce gas that lifts the bread.
Buttermilk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds moisture and tenderness.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture to the crumb.
Oat flakes
Provide the bulk and hearty, chewy texture of the loaf.
Flour
Adds structure that helps the batter hold its shape while baking.

The step that matters

Fill the cans only a little over half full. The batter rises during baking as the baking soda reacts with the acidic buttermilk. Filling past half leaves too little room, so the batter can overflow or bake unevenly.

“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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