Why it works: Rye and molasses work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 804 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Rye and Corn Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the dough
Scald the Indian meal by pouring just enough boiling water over it to wet it without making a batter, stirring constantly.
Mix in the rye meal or flour, molasses, salt, and yeast, adding warm water to make a stiff dough.
Let the mixture rise overnight.
Bake
In the morning, add the baking soda dissolved in a little water.
Transfer the dough to a large pan, smooth the top with a wet hand, and let it stand for a short time.
Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 5 to 6 hours, or overnight if baked late in the day.
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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Rye + molassestop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together804 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
- Indian meal
- Scalding with boiling water partly cooks the cornmeal, giving the bread a moist, tender crumb.
- Rye meal or flour
- Provides the main structure and a distinctive earthy flavour in the dough.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture to the loaf.
- Yeast
- Ferments the dough during the overnight rise, producing gas that lightens it.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic dough to help it rise further and aid browning.
The step that matters
Scalding the Indian meal. Too much boiling water turns the meal into a batter, while too little leaves dry, gritty pockets. Stirring as the water goes in wets the meal evenly, so the dough stays stiff enough to hold its shape and bake up moist.
“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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