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Bread

Oatmeal Bread

A yeast‑leavened bread made with oats, molasses, and lard, baked at 300°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Oatmeal Bread

Why it works: Molasses and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,429 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Oatmeal 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.

Prepare the dough

  1. Pour boiling water over Quaker oats and let cool.

  2. Add yeast, molasses, salt, lard, and flour.

  3. Mix well and let rise overnight.

  4. Stir down the mixture and let it rise again.

Bake

  1. Transfer to pans, let rise, and bake at 300°F (150°C) until done.

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.

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.

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Oats + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Oats + molassestop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together260 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Quaker oats
Add body and a hearty, tender crumb while soaking up water.
Yeast
Produces gas during the long rise, leavening the loaf.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deep color to the crust.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that traps gas and gives the loaf its structure.
Lard
Adds fat, which softens the crumb and gives a tender texture.

The step that matters

Stir down the mixture and let it rise again. Deflating the dough releases built-up gas and redistributes the yeast, so the second rise is even and the loaf does not collapse or turn coarse in texture.

“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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