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Bran Bread

A loaf made with bran, flour, molasses, sour milk, baking soda, salt, and optional raisins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Bran Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

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

Mix the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine the bran, white flour, molasses, and sour milk.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in the sour milk before adding it to the mixture.

  3. Stir in the salt and raisins if desired.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan.

  2. Bake for at least 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

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 + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Bran
Provides bulk and fibre, absorbing liquid to give the loaf its hearty, dense body.
White flour
Adds structure, helping the batter hold together as it bakes.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a dark colour and rich flavour.
Sour milk
Supplies acidity that reacts with baking soda and adds moisture to the batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in sour milk to release gas, lifting the loaf as it rises.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in the sour milk. Baking soda reacts with the acid in sour milk to release carbon dioxide, which lifts the batter. Dissolving it fully in the liquid first spreads the reaction evenly, so the loaf rises without pockets of soda.

“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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