Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. 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.
Make the dough
In a bowl, combine the white bread sponge and brown sugar.
Add Graham flour gradually to form a stiff batter.
Let the batter rise until doubled in size.
Knead in more Graham flour until the dough is manageable but not too stiff.
Place the dough in a pan to rise again.
Bake
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.
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 + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Bread + flourtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,383 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Bread + sugartop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,638 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Bread and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,383 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
- White bread sponge
- Provides a fermented starter that makes the dough rise and gives it a light, airy structure.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the crust brown in the oven.
- Graham flour
- Adds a nutty flavor and a denser crumb, and absorbs a lot of water because of its bran.
The step that matters
Kneading in the Graham flour. Graham flour's bran absorbs water and keeps absorbing it as it sits. Adding too much flour makes the dough stiff, which produces a dry, dense loaf that does not rise well.
“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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