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 ↓
Brown Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a large bowl, combine corn meal, graham flour, molasses, buttermilk, baking soda, and salt. Mix until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a mold.
Steam
Steam for 3 hours.
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 + buttermilktop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,721 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Molasses + buttermilktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together526 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Corn + buttermilktop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together226 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Corn meal
- Provides the coarse, grainy body that gives the bread its structure.
- Graham flour
- Adds wheat bran and germ for a nutty, hearty texture.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, dark color, and a rich caramel flavor.
- Buttermilk
- Adds moisture and acidity that activates the baking soda.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the buttermilk's acid to produce gas that lightens the bread.
The step that matters
Pour the batter into the mold. Fill the mold only partly, since the batter rises as it steams. Overfilling can cause the bread to spill out or cook unevenly.
“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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