Skip to main content
Bread

Graham Bread

A dense bread made with sour milk, molasses, baking soda, baking powder, and graham or whole wheat flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Graham 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 the batter

  1. Mix half the baking soda into the sour milk and the other half into the molasses.

  2. Combine the baking powder with the flour.

  3. Mix all ingredients together until well combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into two well-greased quart tin cans.

  2. Cover the tops of the cans with greased paper.

  3. Bake for 2 hours in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

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.

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. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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
Reacts with the baking soda to produce gas, helping the bread rise and giving it a tender crumb.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and a dark color, and reacts with the baking soda to aid rising.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the sour milk and molasses to release carbon dioxide, leavening the bread.
Baking powder
Provides additional leavening so the loaves rise during baking.
Graham flour or whole wheat flour
Forms the structure of the loaf and contributes its nutty flavor and coarse texture.

The step that matters

Mixing the baking soda into the sour milk and molasses. Baking soda only leavens when it meets an acid. Splitting it between the sour milk and molasses and mixing before combining lets the gas form in the batter, so the loaves rise evenly.

“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.

More graham bread recipes

Steamed 18Quick 13 See all 389 →

You might also like

CornbreadCornbread345 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding336 recipesMilk Bread RollsMilk Bread Rolls242 recipesPotato BreadPotato Bread124 recipes