Name: Methodist Brown Bread
Ingredients: 4 cups Indian meal; 2 cups Graham meal; 1 cup molasses; 4 cups milk or water; 1 cup yeast; 1 teaspoon baking soda

Why it works: Molasses and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,243 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Methodist Brown Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

In a large bowl, mix together the Indian meal, Graham meal, molasses, milk or water, yeast, and baking soda until well combined.
Transfer the mixture to a steaming vessel.

Steam and serve

Steam for 7 to 8 hours.
Serve warm.

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.

Molasses + milktop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,243 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

Indian meal: Forms the main body of the bread, giving it its coarse, hearty structure.
Graham meal: Adds a nutty, wholesome texture and contributes to the bread's structure.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture, and deepens the flavor.
Yeast: Produces gas that makes the batter rise and gives the bread an airy crumb.
Baking soda: Reacts with the molasses's acidity to help the bread rise and darken.

“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.