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Bread

Graham Bread

A yeast‑leavened loaf made with Graham flour, white flour, sugar or molasses, butter or lard, and milk or water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Graham Bread

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the dough

  1. Combine sugar or molasses and salt.

  2. Add scalded milk.

  3. When the mixture is lukewarm, add the dissolved yeast cake.

  4. Stir in the flours.

  5. Beat thoroughly.

  6. Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk.

Shape and bake

  1. Turn the dough onto a floured board and knead slightly.

  2. Shape into loaves and place in buttered loaf pans.

  3. Cover and let rise again until light.

  4. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Graham flour
Adds a coarse, nutty texture and wholesome body to the loaf.
White flour
Provides gluten structure so the loaf holds its shape and rises well.
Yeast cake
Produces carbon dioxide that makes the dough rise and become airy.
Sugar or molasses
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and gentle browning to the crust.
Butter or lard
Adds fat that softens the crumb and gives a tender texture.
Milk or water
Hydrates the flours and builds the dough's structure and moisture.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise until doubled. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce enough gas. Under-proofed dough bakes dense, while over-proofed dough can collapse and lose structure.

“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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