Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Graham Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the dough
Dissolve the yeast and sugar or molasses in the lukewarm water.
Add the lard or butter, then gradually mix in the flours and salt to form a dough.
Knead the dough thoroughly, keeping it soft.
Cover the dough and let it rise in a warm place for about 2 hours, until doubled in size.
Shape and bake
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, mold it into loaves, and place in greased pans.
Cover and let rise again for about 1 hour, or until light.
Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 1 hour.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Provides the whole-grain body and nutty flavour that defines the loaf's dense, coarse crumb.
- White flour
- Adds gluten-forming strength so the loaf holds its shape and rises more lightly.
- Yeast
- Produces carbon dioxide as it ferments sugars, causing the dough to rise.
- Milk
- Adds tenderness, softness and richer browning to the crumb and crust.
- Brown sugar or molasses
- Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness, moisture and a deeper colour to the loaf.
- Lard or butter
- Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and keeps the bread soft.
The step that matters
Kneading the dough thoroughly. Kneading develops gluten strands that trap the gas from the yeast. Keeping the dough soft, rather than stiff, helps it stay extensible so it rises well.
“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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