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Bread

Graham Bread

A yeast bread made with wheat flour, molasses, Graham flour, and baking soda, baked in a pan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,373 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Graham Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, combine wheat flour, molasses, yeast, salt, and warm water.

  2. Add enough Graham flour to make a stiff dough that can be stirred with a strong spoon.

  3. Mix the dough at night and let it rise overnight.

Rise and shape

  1. In the morning, add the dissolved baking soda and mix well.

  2. Pour the mixture into two medium-sized greased pans, filling them about halfway.

  3. Let the pans sit in a warm place until the dough rises to the top.

Bake

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and bake for one hour.

  2. Cover the pans with thick brown paper or an old tin cover for the first 20 minutes to prevent hardening.

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.

  1. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Wheat + molassestop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together702 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Yeast
Ferments the dough so it rises and becomes light and airy.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deep brown color to the loaf.
Graham flour
Provides the bulk and structure of the stiff dough.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic dough to produce gas, adding further lift.
Wheat flour
Adds gluten-forming protein that gives the dough structure and chew.

The step that matters

Cover the pans for the first 20 minutes. Covering the loaf early keeps the surface from drying and hardening in the oven's heat, so the crust stays tender while the interior bakes through.

“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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