Name: Graham Bread
Ingredients: 1 quart sponge (made from white flour); ½ cup molasses; 3 tablespoons sugar; 1 scant tablespoon salt; a little lard; water (as needed); ½ quart graham flour; ½ quart white flour

Why it works: Molasses and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Graham Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare a sponge using white flour as you would for white bread.
Once the sponge is ready, add ½ cup molasses, 3 tablespoons sugar, 1 scant tablespoon salt, a little lard, and enough water to reach the right temperature.
Mix well, then combine with ½ quart graham flour and ½ quart white flour to form the dough.

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.

Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,429 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).