Name: Mrs. Teasdales Brown Bread
Ingredients: 1 pint dark molasses; ½ pint brown sugar; 2 pints buttermilk; 2 eggs; 2 teaspoons baking soda; 1 teaspoon salt; butter the size of an egg; Graham flour to make a very stiff batter

Why it works: Buttermilk and flour 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 ↓

Mrs. Teasdales Brown 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

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, combine dark molasses, brown sugar, buttermilk, eggs, baking soda, salt, and butter. Mix well until combined.
Gradually add Graham flour until you achieve a very stiff batter.

Bake

Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan.
Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

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.

Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,721 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,973 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Molasses + buttermilktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together526 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Dark molasses: Adds sweetness, moisture and the deep brown colour and flavour.
Buttermilk: Its acidity reacts with baking soda to lift the bread and keeps it moist.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic buttermilk and molasses to produce gas that makes the bread rise.
Graham flour: Provides the structure of the batter, which is very stiff, so the loaf holds its shape.
Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the crumb.

“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.