Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓
Brown Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the batter
In a large bowl, combine graham flour, cornmeal, soaked bread crumbs, milk, molasses, coarse sea salt, and baking soda. Mix until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a can.
Bake and boil
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until the top is brown.
Once browned, boil the bread for five hours.
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.
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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,243 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Flour + breadtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,383 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Provides the coarse, hearty body and nutty flavor of the loaf.
- Cornmeal
- Adds grainy texture and structure to the batter.
- Bread crumbs
- Soaked in water, they add moisture and help bind the batter.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture to the loaf.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the molasses to help the bread rise and darken.
The step that matters
Boiling the bread after browning. The record's instruction to boil the bread for five hours after baking is unusual and unclear; it is not standard practice, so check the original source before following it, as the sequence may be mistranscribed.
“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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