Why it works: Milk and wheat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓
Brown Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a large bowl, combine molasses, sweet milk, sour milk, and water.
Add cornmeal, wheat flour, baking soda, and salt; mix well.
Pour the mixture into a greased steaming mold.
Steam
Steam for 4 hours.
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 + wheattop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,418 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 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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Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Molasses + milktop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,243 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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, dark colour and a rich, moist texture to the bread.
- Cornmeal
- Forms the bulk of the crumb and gives the bread its coarse, grainy texture.
- Wheat flour
- Provides some gluten structure to hold the coarser cornmeal together.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that lightens the bread.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds tang and moisture.
The step that matters
Steam for 4 hours. Steaming must stay gentle and steady so the batter cooks through evenly without drying out. Enough water in the pot keeps the steam constant for the full time.
“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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