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Graham Bannock

A quick, lightly sweetened bannock made with graham flour, wheat flour, lard, butter, milk, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Graham Bannock

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. Sift the brown sugar, salt, and graham flour together thoroughly.

  2. Add the baking powder mixed with the flour.

  3. Rub in the lard and butter, then gradually add the milk.

  4. Stir the mixture well but quickly.

Shape and bake

  1. Flour a rolling pin and board, then roll the dough thin enough to cover two medium-sized shallow pans.

  2. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until light brown.

  3. When done, cut into squares.

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. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Wheat + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Gives the bannock its nutty, coarse texture and brown colour.
Wheat flour
Provides gluten structure so the dough holds together when rolled.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the bannock rise and turn light.
Lard
Shortens the dough, tenderising it by coating flour particles with fat.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and binds the dough, adding moisture and softness.
Butter
Adds fat for flavour and tenderness, and helps browning in the oven.

The step that matters

Stir the mixture well but quickly. Mixing develops gluten in the wheat flour, so over-stirring makes the bannock tough. A quick stir keeps it tender while still combining the ingredients evenly.

“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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