Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Prune Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Soak the prunes until soft, then slice and flour them before measuring.
Mix and bake
In a large bowl, combine the graham flour, white flour, sour milk, molasses, brown sugar, cream, salt, and baking soda.
Fold in the sliced prunes.
Pour the batter into two greased loaf pans.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour and milk 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
- Graham flour
- Provides the bulk and structure of the loaf, with a coarse, hearty texture.
- White flour
- Adds gluten for a lighter crumb and better structure than graham flour alone.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to produce gas that makes the bread rise.
- Molasses
- Adds moisture, dark color, and a rich sweetness that promotes browning.
- Prunes
- Add moisture, natural sweetness, and a soft, chewy texture throughout the loaf.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the sour milk and molasses to leaven the batter.
The step that matters
Combining the baking soda with the sour milk. Baking soda needs an acid to release carbon dioxide. Mixing it thoroughly into the acidic batter lets the gas form evenly, so the loaf rises uniformly rather than in patches.
“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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