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
In a large bowl, combine the unbolted wheat flour, yeast, molasses, and salt.
Add warm water gradually to form a stiff dough.
Let the dough rise for 6 to 8 hours.
Shape and bake
Wet your hands with cold water and shape the dough into loaves.
Place the loaves in pans and let them rise for 1 hour or until they rise about 1 inch.
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and bake for about 2 hours until well baked.
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.
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Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Wheat + molassestop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Unbolted wheat flour
- Provides the bulk of the structure, with bran and germ adding a coarse, hearty texture.
- Yeast
- Produces gas that makes the stiff dough rise and gives the loaves their airy crumb.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness and a dark color, and feeds the yeast during rising.
The step that matters
Adding the warm water gradually. Stiff whole-grain doughs absorb water unevenly, and bran soaks up liquid slowly. Adding it in stages lets you judge the texture and avoid a dough that is too dry or too sticky.
“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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