Name: Graham Bread
Ingredients: 3 pints warm water; 1 teacup wheat flour; 1 teacup Indian meal; 1 small teacup yeast; 1 tablespoon molasses; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon baking soda (formerly 'saleratus'); unsifted Graham flour (as needed)

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 ↓

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.

Make the dough

In a large bowl, combine warm water, wheat flour, Indian meal, yeast, molasses, salt, and baking soda.
Stir in enough unsifted Graham flour until the mixture can be stirred with a spoon.
Cover and let the mixture stand overnight.

Rise and bake

In the morning, stir the mixture again and pour it into two deep iron pans.
Allow the dough to rise in the pans.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1.5 hours.

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.

Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,429 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Wheat + molassestop 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

Yeast: Ferments the batter, producing gas that makes the bread rise.
Graham flour: Provides the bulk and coarse, hearty structure of the loaf.
Wheat flour: Adds gluten that helps give the loaf structure and chew.
Indian meal: Adds coarse grain texture and body to the crumb.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, dark color and a little moisture to the loaf.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidity in the batter to help it rise and lighten.

“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.