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Bread

Sour Milk Graham Bread

A loaf of bread made with sour milk, molasses, salt, baking soda, and graham flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Sour Milk Graham Bread

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine sour milk, molasses, salt, and baking soda dissolved in a little hot water.

  2. Stir in graham flour until the mixture is thick enough to be stirred with a spoon.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a well-greased pan.

  2. Bake in the preheated oven for two hours.

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. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with baking soda to produce gas that lifts the bread.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in sour milk to release carbon dioxide, causing the bread to rise.
Graham flour
Provides the bulk and structure of the loaf, with its bran giving a coarse, hearty texture.
New orleans molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deep, dark color and flavor to the bread.

The step that matters

Stir in graham flour to the right thickness. Graham flour absorbs liquid gradually, so the batter must be stirred only until it is thick enough to hold a spoon. Too little flour makes a loose batter that bakes gummy, while too much makes a dense, dry loaf. Mixing thoroughly also distributes the baking soda evenly so the rise is consistent.

“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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