Why it works: Corn and wheat match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 465 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
Brown Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Mix together corn flour, wheat flour, graham flour, and salt.
Add molasses and sweet milk to the mixture.
Dissolve baking soda in sour milk and add it to the mixture.
Beat all ingredients together until well combined.
Steam
Pour the batter into a pail and place it in a kettle of cold water.
Cook for 2 hours after the water begins to boil.
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.
-
Corn + wheattop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together465 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
-
Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,418 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
-
Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
-
Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Corn flour
- Provides the main bulk and a coarse, crumbly texture to the loaf.
- Wheat flour
- Adds structure through gluten, giving the loaf body and chew.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture, and a deep caramel flavour.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in sour milk to produce gas that lifts the batter.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity activates the baking soda and tenderises the crumb.
The step that matters
Keep the kettle water boiling for the full 2 hours. Steaming gives a moist, set loaf. If the water drops below a simmer, the bread cooks unevenly and can turn out heavy or gummy.
“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.
More brown bread recipes
You might also like
Cornbread345 recipes
Wheat Bread65 recipes
Whole Wheat Bread55 recipes
Barley Wheat Bread6 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.