Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Brown 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
Dissolve the baking soda in hot water.
In a bowl, combine sour milk, molasses, and salt.
Stir in the dissolved baking soda and enough graham flour to form a batter that is not too stiff.
Let the batter rise in tins.
Bake
Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for one hour.
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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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,243 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Milk and flour 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
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to produce gas that lightens the bread.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce carbon dioxide, causing the batter to rise.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture to the bread.
- Graham flour
- Provides the structure and body of the bread as it binds with the liquids.
The step that matters
Stirring in the baking soda. Baking soda must meet the acidic sour milk quickly to release gas for rising. Once mixed, the batter should be shaped and baked promptly, before the gas escapes.
“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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