Why it works: Rye and molasses work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 804 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Rye and Indian Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the batter
Scald the Indian meal by pouring just boiling water over it until wet.
Add the rye meal or flour, molasses, salt, baking soda, and yeast.
Mix until thick enough to be stirred with a spoon, adding warm water as needed.
Let the mixture rise overnight.
Bake
Transfer to a baking tin and let it stand for ½ hour.
Bake at 300°F (150°C) for 4 to 6 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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Rye + molassestop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together804 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Indian meal
- Forms the main body of the loaf and absorbs liquid to create a thick, sturdy texture.
- Rye meal or flour
- Adds structure and a dense, hearty flavour to the crumb.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness and a dark colour through browning during the long bake.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the molasses's acidity to help the bread rise and lighten slightly.
- Yeast
- Ferments during the overnight rise, producing gas that leavens the dough.
The step that matters
Let the mixture rise overnight. Yeast needs time to ferment and produce gas; without a full rise the loaf stays dense. Thick, wet batters also trap gas poorly, so the rise must be given its full time.
“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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