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Dark Oatmeal Bread

A yeast‑leavened oat bread flavored with molasses and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Dark Oatmeal Bread

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the batter

  1. Mix molasses, salt, butter, and oats in a bowl.

  2. Heat the milk until scalding, then pour it over the oat mixture.

  3. Let the mixture stand until lukewarm.

  4. Dissolve the yeast in a little warm water and add it to the mixture.

  5. Stir in enough flour to make a stiff batter without kneading.

  6. Cover and let rise overnight.

Shape and bake

  1. In the morning, stir the mixture or cut it with a knife.

  2. Transfer to bread tins and let rise again.

  3. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for one hour.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Oats + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,939 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Oats + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,119 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Rolled oats
Add bulk and a hearty, tender crumb while absorbing liquid.
Yeast
Ferments the batter overnight, producing gas that makes the bread rise.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deep flavour, and feeds the yeast.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, and softens the crumb.
Flour
Provides gluten structure that holds the risen loaf together.

The step that matters

Cover and let rise overnight. The long slow rise lets the yeast develop flavour and gas. Too short a rise leaves the loaf dense, while the batter must stay covered so it does not dry out or form a crust.

“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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