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Buttermilk Graham Bread

A yeasted bread made with buttermilk, white flour, graham flour, and coarse sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Buttermilk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Buttermilk Graham Bread

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the sponge

  1. Scald the buttermilk and let it cool.

  2. Add salt and homemade yeast to the cooled buttermilk.

  3. Make a sponge with white flour.

  4. When risen, mix in graham flour and knead the dough.

Rise and shape

  1. Let the dough rise, then knead it down.

  2. Let it rise again and shape into separate loaves.

  3. When the loaves have doubled in size, they are ready for the oven.

Bake

  1. Bake at 400°F (200°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. Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 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

Homemade yeast
Ferments the sponge so the dough rises and becomes light.
White flour
Forms the sponge and provides the gluten network that holds the rise.
Graham flour
Adds coarse bran and nutty flavour, giving the loaf a denser, heartier crumb.
Sweet buttermilk
Supplies liquid for the dough and mild acidity that adds tenderness and flavour.

The step that matters

Letting the loaves double before baking. Shaped loaves must rise fully before baking. Under-proofed dough bakes dense, while over-proofed dough collapses and loses structure as yeast gas escapes.

“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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