Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Graham Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Mix the batter
Fill a quart measure to within an inch of the top with sour milk.
Add enough New Orleans molasses to fill the measure.
Dissolve 2 teaspoons of baking soda in a little hot water and add to the milk and molasses.
Stir in 1 teaspoon of salt.
Add graham flour until you achieve a stiff batter.
Cook
Steam the batter for 1 hour, then transfer to the oven to dry out, or bake directly.
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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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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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Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,243 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sour milk
- Provides moisture and acidity that reacts with the baking soda to produce gas.
- Baking soda
- Neutralizes the sour milk's acid and releases carbon dioxide, which lightens the bread.
- New orleans molasses
- Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deep brown color and rich flavor.
- Graham flour
- Forms the structure of the bread, with its bran giving a coarse, hearty texture.
The step that matters
Adding the baking soda. Baking soda must be dissolved and stirred evenly into the acidic sour milk so it reacts fully. Uneven mixing leaves pockets of soda that taste bitter and gas that escapes, while the batter may rise poorly.
“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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