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Bread

Graham Bread

A sweet bread made with graham flour, molasses, and a white bread sponge.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,429 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Graham Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Stir 1 cup of graham flour into 1 pint of boiling water.

  2. Add 1 pint of cold water and enough graham flour to make a thick batter.

  3. Mix in 2 cups of white bread sponge and let it stand until light.

  4. Add 1 cup of molasses and coarse sea salt to taste, then mix in more graham flour to make a very stiff batter.

Rise and bake

  1. Pour the batter into pans and let it rise.

  2. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°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.

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Flour + breadtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,383 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Bread + molassestop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together529 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Flour and bread barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,383 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Graham flour
Forms the bulk of the batter and provides the structure and hearty texture of the loaf.
White bread sponge
Its yeast ferments the batter so it becomes light and rises in the pans.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and moisture, and gives the loaf its characteristic flavor.

The step that matters

Letting the batter stand until light. The sponge needs time to ferment and trap gas before the stiff batter is added. Under-proofing leaves a dense loaf, while the rise must be judged by the batter's airy appearance rather than the clock.

“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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