Name: Mrs. Grover Cleveland’s Celebrated Recipe for Brown Bread
Ingredients: 1 cup Indian meal; 1 cup rye flour; 1 cup sour milk; 1 cup molasses; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 teaspoon salt

Why it works: Rye and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,320 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Mrs. Grover Cleveland’s Celebrated Recipe for 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.

Prepare

In a large bowl, mix the Indian meal, rye flour, sour milk, molasses, baking soda, and salt thoroughly.

Steam and bake

Steam the mixture for 2.5 hours.
After steaming, bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the oven heat.

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.

Rye + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,320 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Rye + milktop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together918 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,429 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Rye + molassestop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together804 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Flour and milk 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

Indian meal: Provides the coarse cornmeal body and texture that gives the bread its structure.
Rye flour: Adds structure and a dense crumb, with a distinct earthy flavor.
Sour milk: Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to help the bread rise, and it adds moisture.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, moisture, and the dark color typical of brown bread.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to produce gas that lightens the batter.

“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.