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Bread

Wheat-and-indian Bread

A yeast-leavened bread made with Indian meal and wheat flour, sweetened with molasses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,373 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Wheat-and-indian Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Scald 2 quarts of Indian meal with boiling water.

  2. Once cooled, add 1 teaspoon salt, ½ pint yeast, and ½ teacup molasses.

  3. Knead in enough wheat flour to form a dough.

  4. Set the dough aside to rise.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape into loaves and let rise again.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

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. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Molasses + wheattop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together702 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Indian meal
Forms the bulk of the loaf, giving it a coarse, hearty crumb after scalding.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise before and after shaping.
Wheat flour
Adds gluten-forming protein so the dough holds together and keeps its shape.
Molasses
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning to the crust.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise twice. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce enough gas for a light loaf. Rising too short leaves the bread dense, while over-rising can collapse the structure before baking.

“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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