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Bread

Graham Bread

A yeast‑leavened loaf made with Graham flour, white flour, sugar or molasses, and butter or lard.

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

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 dough

  1. Combine sugar or molasses and salt.

  2. Add scalded milk.

  3. Add the dissolved yeast cake.

  4. Stir in the flours.

  5. Beat thoroughly.

Rise and shape

  1. Cover the dough and let rise until doubled in bulk.

  2. Turn the dough onto a floured board.

  3. Knead slightly.

  4. Shape into loaves.

Final rise and bake

  1. Place in buttered bread pans.

  2. Cover again and let rise until light.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 45 minutes.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Graham flour
Provides the main structure and the hearty, nutty flavor of the loaf.
White flour
Adds gluten strength, giving the dough elasticity to hold its rise and a lighter crumb.
Yeast
Produces carbon dioxide gas that makes the dough rise and become airy.
Butter or lard
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and softens the texture.
Sugar or molasses
Feeds the yeast, adds sweetness and helps the crust brown.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until doubled in bulk. Yeast gas needs time to stretch the gluten network. Underproofed dough stays dense, while overproofed dough can collapse or bake up coarse and flat.

“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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