Why it works: Flour and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,429 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Graham Bread, I.
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sponge
Set sponge overnight with water, salt, and yeast.
Thicken with white flour and add molasses.
Shape and bake
Stir in enough Graham flour to make a thick batter.
In the morning, pour into bread tins and let rise briefly.
Bake for 1 hour.
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.
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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
- Yeast
- Produces gas that leavens the dough so the loaf rises and becomes airy.
- White flour
- Thickens the sponge and adds gluten structure that helps hold the loaf together.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, moisture, and a darker browning color to the crumb and crust.
- Graham flour
- Provides the bulk of the dough, giving a coarser texture and a nutty, whole-grain flavor.
The step that matters
Let the loaf rise briefly in the tins. Yeast needs time to build gas and stretch the dough before baking. Too little rise gives a dense loaf, while too much can cause the structure to collapse in the oven.
“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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