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Graham Bread

A molasses‑sweetened Graham bread baked or steamed, made with Graham flour, all-purpose flour, sour milk, and baking soda.

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 ↓

Graham Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Combine enough white bread sponge for one loaf with 1 cup molasses and a little warm water.

  2. Stir in Graham flour until the dough is slightly stiffer than corn-bread dough.

  3. Let the dough rise.

Bake

  1. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C).

Mix, steam and dry

  1. Mix 2 cups Graham flour, 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 cup sour milk, and 1 teaspoon baking soda, and stir thoroughly.

  2. Pour into a well-buttered tin.

  3. Steam for 2 hours.

  4. Dry off in the oven.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Molasses + milktop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and a dark colour to the crumb.
Graham flour
Provides the bran-rich body, structure and nutty flavour of the loaf.
All-purpose flour
Adds gluten for structure, helping the loaf hold its shape.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda and adds tang.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in sour milk to produce gas that lightens the bread.

The step that matters

Stir in Graham flour until the dough is slightly stiffer than corn-bread dough. A dough that is too wet will not hold its shape and gives a heavy, gummy crumb. Bran-rich flour absorbs liquid, so the dough needs to be stiff enough to rise and set properly.

“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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