Name: Wheat-and-indian Bread
Ingredients: 2 quarts Indian meal; boiling water; 1 teaspoon salt; ½ pint good yeast; ½ teacup molasses; wheat flour (enough to form a dough)

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 ↓

Wheat-and-indian Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

Scald the Indian meal with boiling water.
Once cooled, add salt, yeast, and molasses.
Knead in enough wheat flour to form a dough.
Set the dough aside to rise.

Shape and bake

Shape into loaves and let rise again.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

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.

Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,429 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Molasses + wheattop 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

Indian meal: Forms the bulk of the loaf, giving it its coarse, hearty structure and body.
Yeast: Produces gas as it ferments, causing the dough to rise and turn light.
Molasses: Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness, a dark color, and some browning in the crust.
Wheat flour: Adds gluten-forming protein that gives the kneaded dough elasticity to hold its shape.

The step that matters

Let the dough cool before adding yeast. The scalded meal must be cool enough that boiling-hot liquid does not kill the yeast, which is needed for the dough to rise.

“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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Wheat-and-indian Bread