Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Brown Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Scald the cornmeal with boiling milk or water and let it cool.
Add Graham flour, salt, brown sugar or molasses, homemade yeast, and flour.
Mix with warm water until the mixture is as stiff as it can be stirred.
Steam and finish
Place the mixture in deep basins and steam for 2 hours.
Before baking, baste with sweet cream or milk for a soft, tender crust.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and flour 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
- Cornmeal
- Forms the bulk of the loaf and gives it its corn flavour and crumb.
- Homemade yeast
- Leavens the batter so the bread rises and becomes lighter.
- Graham flour
- Adds gluten and a nutty, wholesome flavour and texture to the bread.
- Brown sugar or molasses
- Adds sweetness and depth of flavour and helps the crust brown.
- Sweet cream or milk
- Enriches the surface, softening the crust and encouraging browning.
The step that matters
Mixing to the right stiffness. The batter should be as stiff as it can be stirred. Too much warm water makes a slack batter that steams into a gummy, dense loaf instead of a light, set crumb.
“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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