Skip to main content
Bread

Bran Bread

A simple baked bread made with egg whites, salt, bran, and rye nuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Rye and nuts work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 32 recipes. Both carry ethyl decanoate, which smells grape, waxy. The science ↓

Bran Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA very moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. Add salt and mix in the bran and rye nuts.

  3. Spread the mixture in a pie tin.

  4. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven with the door slightly open.

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. Rye + nutstop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl decanoate (grape, waxy).

  2. Egg + nutstop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,624 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Egg + ryetop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together484 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air and give the bread its lift and light structure.
Bran
Adds a grainy texture and bulk to the bread.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.. Whites whipped to stiff peaks hold air bubbles that expand in the oven and lift the mixture. Underbeaten whites collapse and give a dense result, while overbeaten whites turn dry and grainy and lose their ability to hold air.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, rye):

  1. Flaxseedfits better
  2. Almondfits better
  3. Beansfits about as well
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, rye. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

You might also like

CornbreadCornbread345 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding336 recipesMilk Bread RollsMilk Bread Rolls242 recipesPotato BreadPotato Bread124 recipes