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Graham Bread

A sweet, yeasted bread made with Graham flour, wheat flour, molasses, lard, and yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Graham Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, combine 6 cups of Graham flour and 2 cups of wheat flour.

  2. Add 1 tablespoon of lard, 1 teaspoon of salt, and ½ to 1 cup of molasses based on your taste.

  3. Dissolve the Fleischmann's Yeast Cake in a little warm water.

  4. Add enough warm milk to create a moderately firm dough.

  5. Mix the ingredients well and set the dough aside to rise until light.

Shape and bake

  1. Once risen, place the dough in pans and let it rise again.

  2. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until done.

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 + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Molasses + milktop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

Graham flour
Forms the bulk of the dough and gives the bread its coarse, hearty structure.
Wheat flour
Adds gluten-forming protein that helps the dough hold its shape and rise.
Fleischmann's yeast cake
Yeast produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and a moist, rich flavor to the loaf.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and keeps the bread moist.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise until light. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce enough gas to lift the dough. Rising too short leaves a dense loaf, while the second rise in the pans lets the shaped dough expand before baking.

“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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