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Bread

Bran Bread

A quick loaf made with flour, bran, sugar, molasses, buttermilk, and leavening agents.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Bran Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.

  2. Add bran and brown sugar to the dry ingredients.

  3. Dissolve baking soda in molasses and add to buttermilk.

  4. Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients until well combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased pan and bake for 1½ hours in a slow oven at 300°F (150°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. Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Molasses + buttermilktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together526 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

What each ingredient does

Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in buttermilk and molasses to produce gas that lifts the bread.
Buttermilk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds tenderness and moisture to the crumb.
Baking powder
Provides additional lift as the batter heats in the oven.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and deep flavour, and its acidity helps activate the baking soda.
Cooking bran
Adds fibre, texture, and a hearty structure to the crumb while absorbing liquid.

The step that matters

Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients until well combined.. Once the leavening acids and bases meet, gas forms quickly, so the batter should be combined promptly and only until smooth. Overmixing develops gluten and can make the bread tough and dense.

“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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