Name: Brown Bread
Ingredients: 2 quarts Indian meal; 2 quarts rye meal; 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt; ½ cup yeast; ½ cup molasses; warm water

Why it works: Rye and molasses work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 804 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Brown Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

Mix the Indian meal, rye meal, salt, yeast, and molasses in a large bowl.
Add enough warm water to form a batter.
Butter your baking tins and pour the batter in.

Rise and bake

Let the batter rise for 1 hour.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 4 to 5 hours.
For a brick oven, it's best to leave it in overnight.

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.

Rye + molassestop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together804 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

Indian meal: Forms the main body of the loaf and gives it its structure.
Rye meal: Adds a dense, hearty texture and deep flavour to the loaf.
Yeast: Produces gas that makes the batter rise before baking.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, moisture, and helps the crust brown during baking.