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Bread

Graham Bread

A yeast bread made with wheat and Graham flour, lard, molasses, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

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.

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, combine water, yeast, and salt.

  2. Add lard and molasses, mixing well.

  3. Gradually incorporate wheat flour and Graham flour to form a stiff dough.

  4. Knead the dough until smooth.

  5. Let it rise until doubled in size.

Bake

  1. Shape the dough and bake as you would plain bread at 350°F (175°C).

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. Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Molasses + wheattop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together702 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

Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light.
Wheat flour
Forms gluten with water, giving the dough structure and elasticity.
Graham flour
Adds coarse bran and wholegrain texture and a nutty flavour to the loaf.
Molasses
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness, colour and moisture to the crumb.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and softens the texture.

The step that matters

Let it rise until doubled in size. Yeast needs enough time to produce gas and expand the gluten network. Underproofed dough bakes dense, while overproofed dough can collapse and lose 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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