Why it works: Flour and milk 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 ↓
Beown 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, combine the flour, Indian meal, and salt.
In another bowl, mix the sour milk, molasses, and baking soda.
Make and bake the bread
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan.
Bake for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
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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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,243 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Flour and milk 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
- Reacts with the baking soda to produce gas, helping the bread rise and giving it a tangy flavour.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to release carbon dioxide, lifting the batter as it bakes.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, moisture and a dark colour to the crumb.
- Indian meal
- Cornmeal that gives the bread a coarse, crumbly texture and a grainy flavour.
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the loaf together as it bakes.
The step that matters
Stirring the wet and dry ingredients. Stir only until just combined. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, which can make the loaf dense and tough, while the baking soda starts reacting as soon as it meets the acidic milk, so the batter should go into the pan promptly.
“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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