Why it works: Molasses and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,429 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Oat Meal Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the oats
Pour boiling water over the oats and let them stand for one hour or until cool.
Make and bake the dough
Stir all ingredients together and let the mixture rise overnight.
Add enough flour to make the dough easy to roll.
Bake as you would wheat bread.
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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Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Oats + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,169 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Oats + molassestop 31% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together260 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
- Flour
- Builds the structure of the dough as its proteins form gluten.
- Rolled oats
- Softened in boiling water, they add moisture and a hearty texture.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, moisture and a darker color to the crumb.
- Yeast cake
- Ferments the dough so it rises overnight and becomes airy.
The step that matters
Adding the flour. Flour should be added only until the dough is easy to roll. Too much flour makes the dough stiff and dense, because extra flour absorbs moisture and limits how far the dough can rise and stretch.
“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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