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Bread

Indian Bread

A yeast‑leavened bread made with wheat flour, Indian meal, molasses, butter, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,373 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Indian Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sponge

  1. Make a sponge at night with 1 pint of water, wheat flour, and yeast.

Make the mush

  1. In the morning, bring 1 pint of water to a boil in a saucepan and stir in Indian meal until thick.

  2. When cool, add 1 small cup of molasses, a piece of butter the size of an egg, and salt.

Mix, rise and bake

  1. Add a pinch of baking soda to the sponge and mix with the Indian meal mixture.

  2. Knead with wheat flour like other bread and place in pans to rise.

  3. Bake when very light until golden brown.

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 + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Wheat flour
Forms the gluten structure that traps gas and gives the bread its chew.
Yeast
Ferments the sponge, producing gas that makes the dough rise and become light.
Indian meal
Cornmeal thickens into a mush that gives the loaf body and a coarser crumb.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and moisture, and feeds browning during baking.
Butter
Adds fat that softens the crumb and gives a richer flavor.
Baking soda
Reacts with acidic components in the dough to add extra lift and help the crumb open.

The step that matters

Bake when very light. Baking should start once the dough has risen well. Under-proofed dough bakes dense, while over-proofed dough collapses and loses structure.

“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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