Why it works: Rye and wheat match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 404 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Brown 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 wheat
Select good wheat, wash it, and soak it overnight.
Put the wheat in a cloth sack and steam until plump but not soft.
Spread the wheat thin on tins and roast in the oven at 400°F (200°C) until well dried and somewhat brown.
Grind the wheat coarsely.
Make the bread
In a pot, combine caramel-cereal coffee and nut butter, and bring to a boil.
Stir in rye flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt, all sifted together.
Once boiling, remove from heat and stir in enough prepared wheat to make a very stiff mixture.
Press the mixture compactly into an oiled pan, cover, and steam for three hours.
Dry in the oven for a few minutes and serve hot.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Rye + wheattop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together404 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Rye + flourtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,320 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + wheattop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,002 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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
- Prepared wheat
- Forms the bulk and chewy structure of the loaf once soaked, steamed and roasted.
- Rye flour
- Adds earthy flavor and helps bind the stiff mixture into a firm crumb.
- Cornmeal
- Adds coarse texture and body to the crumb.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps browning in the steamed loaf.
- Nut butter
- Adds fat and richness, giving a softer, moister crumb.
- Caramel-cereal coffee
- Supplies the liquid that moistens the mixture and adds roasted, caramel-like aroma.
The step that matters
Packing the mixture into the pan. The mixture must be very stiff and pressed compactly so it holds together and slices cleanly after long steaming. A loose mix can crumble or turn soggy as the starches absorb steam.
“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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