Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Graham Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the batter
Combine warm water, brown sugar or molasses, hop yeast, and salt in a large bowl.
Thicken the mixture with unbolted flour to create a thin batter.
Stir in more flour until the mixture is quite stiff.
In the morning, add baking soda and enough flour to make the batter stiff enough to stir with a spoon.
Transfer the batter into pans.
Shape and bake
Smooth the tops of the loaves with a spoon or knife dipped in water before baking.
Keep the loaves warm while they rise.
Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C).
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.
-
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Brown sugar or molasses
- Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness, moisture and a darker crust.
- Hop yeast
- Produces gas that makes the dough rise and gives the loaf an airy crumb.
- Unbolted flour
- Provides the bulk and structure of the loaf, with bran giving a coarser texture.
- Baking soda
- Releases gas quickly to lighten the batter and help the loaves rise.
The step that matters
Adding the baking soda in the morning. Baking soda starts releasing gas as soon as it is mixed in, so the batter should be stirred stiff and shaped promptly. Waiting too long lets the gas escape and leaves the loaves dense.
“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.
More graham bread recipes
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.