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 ↓
Brown Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Combine Graham flour, cornmeal, molasses, sweet milk, and baking soda in a bowl and mix until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased steaming mold.
Steam and cool
Steam for 3 hours.
After steaming, remove from the mold and let cool.
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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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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Molasses + milktop 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
- Graham flour
- Provides the bulk and the wholesome, nutty structure of the loaf.
- Cornmeal
- Adds body and a coarse, crumbly texture to the bread.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture to the loaf.
- Sweet milk
- Hydrates the flour and cornmeal so the batter can set into a moist loaf.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lift and lighten the bread.
The step that matters
Filling and sealing the steaming mold. The batter is loose and rises as it steams, so the mold should be only partly full and kept tightly covered. Overfilling can force batter out, and a loose lid lets steam escape, leaving the bread dense or uneven.
“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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