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Bread

Soft Graham Bread

A soft bread made with graham flour, all-purpose flour, molasses, brown sugar, butter or lard, and yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Soft Graham Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Mix the dough

  1. In a large bowl, mix the graham flour, all-purpose flour, salt, molasses, brown sugar, and butter or lard.

  2. Dissolve the yeast in warm water and add it to the mixture.

  3. Add enough lukewarm water to form a soft dough.

Shape and bake

  1. Once the dough is light, beat it and pour it into greased bread pans, filling them halfway.

  2. Let the dough rise until light, then bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) 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. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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
Provides the coarse bran and wholemeal body that gives this loaf its characteristic texture and nutty flavour.
All-purpose flour
Adds gluten-forming protein so the dough can trap gas and hold its shape while rising.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars in the dough, releasing carbon dioxide that makes the loaf rise.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and a dark colour, and helps the crust brown during baking.
Butter or lard
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and softens the texture of the loaf.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise until light. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce enough carbon dioxide to expand the dough. Underproofed dough bakes up dense, while overproofed dough can collapse, so the rise should be judged by how light the dough feels.

“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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