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Bread

Graham Bread

A yeast‑leavened bread made with wheat flour, molasses, Graham flour, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,373 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Graham Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, combine wheat flour, molasses, yeast, salt, and warm water.

  2. Add enough Graham flour to make a stiff dough that can be stirred with a strong spoon.

  3. Mix the dough at night and let it rise overnight.

Shape and rise

  1. In the morning, dissolve baking soda in a little water and mix it into the dough.

  2. Pour the dough into two medium-sized greased pans, filling them halfway.

  3. Let the pans sit in a warm place until the dough rises to the top.

Bake

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for one hour, covering with brown paper for the first 20 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. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Wheat + molassestop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together702 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

Wheat flour
Provides gluten and structure to hold the loaf together.
Yeast
Ferments sugars to produce gas that makes the dough rise.
Porto rico molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and food for the yeast, plus a deep color and flavor.
Graham flour
Adds bran and whole-grain body, making the dough stiff and the crumb denser.
Baking soda
Reacts with acidic molasses to release gas, adding extra lift and darkening the crumb.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until it reaches the top of the pans. Yeast needs enough time to build gas and stretch the gluten. Under-proofed dough bakes dense, while over-proofed dough can 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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