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Bread

Raisin Brown Bread

A steamed raisin bread made with graham flour, molasses, sour milk, and baking leavening.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Raisin Brown Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Sift together the graham flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.

  2. Mix in the raisins, molasses, and sour milk.

  3. Beat the egg well and add it to the mixture.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the batter into a greased mold, pressing raisins into the surface.

  2. Steam for 2 hours.

  3. Optionally, add a little kitchen bouquet for a darker color.

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 + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + molassestop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Raisin + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Graham flour
Forms the structure of the bread and gives it its hearty, wholesome texture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to produce gas that lightens the crumb.
Baking powder
Adds extra lift so the bread rises during steaming.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds moisture and tenderness.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deep brown color to the bread.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness.

The step that matters

Steam for 2 hours. Steaming must be continuous and gentle so the batter sets evenly; if the water boils dry or the steam drops, the bread can turn out dense or sunken.

“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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