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Bread

Bran Bread

A quick loaf made with bran, graham flour, molasses, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Bran 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.

Prepare

  1. Dissolve the baking soda in a little boiling water and add it to the molasses.

  2. Mix all the ingredients together.

Rest and bake

  1. Let the mixture stand for 1 hour.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour and 15 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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + nutstop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together490 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Sour milk
Acidity reacts with baking soda to produce carbon dioxide, helping the bread rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas, leavening the batter without yeast.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a rich sweetness with a slightly bitter edge.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets during baking.
Graham flour
Provides the main structure of the loaf through gluten and starch.
Bran
Adds fiber and a coarse, hearty texture, absorbing liquid in the batter.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda before mixing. Baking soda must be fully dissolved and combined with the molasses so it reacts evenly through the batter. Undissolved pockets can cause uneven rising and bitter spots in the loaf.

Swap the raisin

The recipe marks raisin as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, molasses, sugar, egg, flour, nuts):

  1. Raisinthe original
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Datesfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, molasses, sugar, egg, flour, nuts. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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