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 ↓
Brown Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Mix the batter
In a large bowl, combine Graham flour, sour cream or milk, lard, sorghum molasses, raisins, and coarse sea salt.
Dissolve baking soda in ½ cup of sour cream or milk.
Add the dissolved mixture to the batter and stir thoroughly.
Steam
Grease baking powder cans and fill them with the batter, leaving 1.5 inches from the top.
Cut cloths to fit the size of the cans and place them on top of the batter, then cover with lids.
Set the cans in a steamer over boiling water, cover tightly, and steam for 4 hours, ensuring the water remains boiling.
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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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sorghum + raisintop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together28 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Flour + sorghumtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together99 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,577 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 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
- Graham flour
- Forms the bulk of the structure and gives the bread its hearty, coarse texture.
- Sour cream or milk
- Supplies moisture that hydrates the flour and makes the batter pourable.
- Lard
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and softens the texture.
- Sorghum molasses
- Adds sweetness, moisture, and a dark color with a deep flavor.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidity of the sour dairy to produce gas that lifts the bread.
The step that matters
Keep the steamer water boiling for the full 4 hours. Steaming cooks the batter with moist heat. If the water stops boiling, the temperature drops and the bread may turn out dense or undercooked, because the leavening gas stops expanding.
“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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