Name: Graham Bread
Ingredients: 1 cup Indian meal; 1 cup warm water; ½ cup yeast; ½ cup molasses; ½ teaspoon baking soda; ½ teaspoon salt; Graham flour (as needed to make a stiff batter)

Why it works: Molasses and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,429 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Graham Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Scald the Indian meal with warm water.
Add yeast, molasses, baking soda, and salt; mix well.
Stir in enough graham flour to form a stiff batter.
Steam the mixture for one hour.

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 + flourtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,429 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Indian meal: Provides the bulk and coarse structure of the loaf, softened by scalding for a tender crumb.
Yeast: Produces gas that makes the batter rise and gives the bread an airy texture.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, moisture, and a dark color with a rich flavor.
Baking soda: Reacts with the molasses's acidity to add lift and help the bread rise.
Graham flour: Forms the stiff batter that sets into the body of the loaf, adding structure and nutty flavor.

“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.