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 ↓
Brown 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.
Mix the batter
In a large bowl, combine sour milk, molasses, sugar, eggs, melted butter, and baking soda.
Stir in brown flour until the mixture is as stiff as you can stir with a spoon.
Bake
For gems or puffs, use slightly less flour and bake in muffin rings or gem pans.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until cooked through.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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
- Sour milk
- Reacts with the baking soda to lift the batter and adds a tangy note.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to produce gas that makes the bread rise.
- Brown flour
- Provides the structure that sets the bread as it bakes.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, helping the bread hold together.
- Molasses
- Adds moisture, dark colour and a deep sweetness.
The step that matters
Stir in the flour only until stiff. Stirring too much after adding flour develops gluten and makes the bread tough, while too little leaves it wet. Adding flour until the mixture is just stiff enough to stir keeps the crumb tender while the baking soda's rise is still active.
“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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