Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Graham Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the dough
Thicken the warm water with unbolted flour to make a thin batter.
Stir in the brown sugar, salt, and yeast.
Add more flour until the mixture is quite stiff.
In the morning, add the baking soda and enough flour to make the batter very stiff.
Shape and bake
Place the batter into pans and let it rise again.
Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C), keeping it warm while it rises.
Smooth the tops of the loaves with a spoon or knife dipped in water.
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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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Unbolted flour
- Forms the structure of the loaves as it absorbs water and sets during baking.
- Yeast
- Ferments the dough and produces gas that makes the loaves rise.
- Baking soda
- Releases gas in the stiff dough, adding lift to the loaves.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and food for the yeast, and helps the crust brown.
- Warm water
- Hydrates the flour and yeast so the dough can form and ferment.
The step that matters
In the morning, add the baking soda and enough flour to make the batter very stiff.. Baking soda releases gas, and a very stiff dough traps that gas so the loaves rise. If the batter stays loose, the gas escapes and the loaves can turn out flat and dense.
“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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