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Bread

Oatmeal Bread

A yeasted bread made with oats, molasses, and graham flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Oatmeal Bread

Why it works: Oats and bread work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 258 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Oatmeal Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very hot 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 bowl, combine rolled oats, shortening, baking soda, and salt.

  2. Pour boiling water over the mixture and let it stand for 10 minutes.

  3. Stir in molasses, graham flour, and bread flour until well combined.

  4. When lukewarm, add the dissolved yeast and mix thoroughly.

  5. Cover and let the dough rise overnight.

Shape and bake

  1. In the morning, punch down the dough and transfer it to baking pans.

  2. Let it rise until doubled in size.

  3. Bake in a preheated 300°F (150°C) oven 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Oats + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together258 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Oats + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + breadtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,383 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Oats + molassestop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together260 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Flour and bread barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,383 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

Rolled oats
Add a hearty texture and absorb liquid, giving the loaf body and a soft crumb.
Graham flour
Provides the bulk of the structure and a coarse, nutty texture in the loaf.
Bread flour
Adds gluten-forming protein that gives the dough elasticity and helps it rise.
Yeast cake
Produces carbon dioxide during the long rise, leavening the dough and giving it lift.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deep color to the crumb and crust.
Shortening
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and softens the texture.

The step that matters

Overnight rise. The dough must rise slowly and fully, since yeast activity drives leavening. Too short a rise leaves a dense loaf, while an overly long rise can weaken the gluten and collapse the structure.

“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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