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Bread

Graham Nut Bread

A nutty bread made with graham flour, cornmeal, molasses, and sour milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Graham Nut Bread

Why it works: Molasses and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Graham Nut Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the baking powder, nuts, graham flour, cornmeal, and brown sugar.

Make the batter

  1. Dissolve the baking soda in the sour milk, then combine with the dry ingredients.

  2. Pour the batter into two pans and bake for about one hour.

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.

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.

  1. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Flour + nutstop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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 the coarse, nutty structure of the loaf.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to release gas, helping the bread rise.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds moisture to the batter.
Molasses
Adds moisture, sweetness, and deep color to the crumb and crust.
Cornmeal
Adds a gritty texture and some structure to the crumb.
Chopped nuts
Add crunch and a rich, toasty flavor throughout the loaf.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in the sour milk, then combine. Baking soda needs an acid to react and release carbon dioxide. Dissolving it fully in the sour milk before mixing spreads the reaction evenly, so the loaf rises uniformly rather than leaving pockets or a bitter, soda-tasting patch.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, molasses, sugar, milk):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Hazelnutfits about as well
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, molasses, sugar, milk. 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.

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