Why it works: Milk and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,243 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓
Graham 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 the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Mix and bake
In a bowl, combine sweet milk, molasses, baking soda, and salt, and mix until smooth and thin enough to pour.
Pour the mixture into a greased baking pan.
Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick 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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Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,243 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sweet milk
- Supplies the liquid that hydrates the flour and makes the batter pourable.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, moisture, and deep color and flavor to the bread.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the molasses' acidity to release gas that lifts the batter.
The step that matters
Bake soon after mixing. Baking soda starts reacting as soon as it meets the acidic molasses and liquid, releasing gas that lifts the batter. If the batter sits too long before baking, much of that gas escapes, leaving a denser loaf.
“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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