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Bread

Bran Bread

A loaf of bran bread made with bran flour, all-purpose flour, baking soda, raisins, eggs, buttermilk, molasses, and salt.

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 ↓

Bran Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix the bran flour, all-purpose flour, salt, baking soda, and raisins.

  2. In another bowl, combine the beaten eggs, buttermilk, and molasses.

  3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well by hand.

Bake

  1. Transfer the mixture to a greased loaf pan and bake for about 1 hour.

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. Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Buttermilk + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together526 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Bran flour
Provides the bulk and the coarse, hearty texture of the loaf.
All-purpose flour
Supplies gluten that gives the loaf enough structure to hold its shape.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk or sour milk and molasses to produce gas that lifts the loaf.
Eggs
Add structure and richness and help bind the batter together.
Buttermilk or sour milk
Adds moisture and acidity that activates the baking soda.
Molasses
Adds moisture, sweetness, and a deep flavor, and helps the crumb brown.

The step that matters

Mixing the wet and dry ingredients. Mixing just until combined keeps the batter tender. Overworking develops too much gluten from the all-purpose flour, which can make the loaf dense and tough.

“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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