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 ↓
Brown 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 batter
In a large bowl, mix together sour milk, molasses, salt, and baking soda.
Add Graham flour and cornmeal, stirring until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased steaming dish.
Steam and serve
Steam for 2 hours.
Just before serving, place in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for a few moments.
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.
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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
- Provides moisture and its acidity reacts with the baking soda to lift the bread.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, moisture, and the dark color and rich flavor of the bread.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to produce gas that makes the bread rise.
- Graham flour
- Forms the main structure of the bread and gives it a hearty, slightly coarse texture.
- Cornmeal
- Adds a grainy texture and helps the bread hold together with the flour.
The step that matters
Combine the batter fully before steaming. Baking soda reacts with the acid in the sour milk as soon as it is mixed in, so the batter should be evenly combined and placed in the steamer promptly to trap the gas and get an even rise.
“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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