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 ↓
Splendid Brown Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Make the batter
In a large bowl, combine sour milk, molasses, lard, baking soda, and salt.
Gradually add Graham flour until you achieve a stiff batter.
Steam and serve
Transfer the batter to a 2-quart tin pail and cover with the lid.
Suspend the pail by a stick through the handle in a pot of boiling water.
Steam for about 2 hours until cooked through.
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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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to produce gas that lightens the bread.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in sour milk to produce carbon dioxide, which makes the bread rise.
- Graham flour
- Forms the structure of the bread, setting as it steams into a firm crumb.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, moisture and a dark color with a deep flavor.
- Lard
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
The step that matters
Keep the pail sealed and the water boiling. Steaming relies on the trapped steam to cook and raise the batter evenly. If the lid is loose or the water stops boiling, the bread can turn out dense or undercooked in the center.
“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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