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Wheat and Indian Bread

A yeast-leavened bread made from Indian meal and wheat flour, sweetened with molasses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,373 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Wheat and Indian Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Sift 4 quarts of Indian meal into a pan.

  2. Stir in enough boiling water to make a very stiff batter that holds a spoon upright.

  3. Let the batter cool until blood-warm.

Make the dough

  1. Stir in 2 quarts of sifted wheat flour, 1 tablespoon of coarse sea salt, and 2 teaspoons of molasses.

  2. Add 1 small teacup of yeast and mix thoroughly.

  3. Grease a pan well on top and let the mixture rise overnight.

Bake

  1. In the morning, when it shows signs of cracking, bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) covered with brown paper for 2-3 hours.

  2. Alternatively, steam for 5 hours and then bake covered in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 1 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.

  1. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Wheat + molassestop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together702 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Indian meal
Forms the bulk of the loaf and gives it its coarse, hearty structure.
Wheat flour
Adds gluten-forming protein that helps the dough hold its shape and rise.
Yeast
Ferments the dough, producing gas that makes the loaf rise and become airy.
Molasses
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and a darker colour to the crust.

The step that matters

Letting the batter cool to blood-warm before adding yeast. Yeast is killed by very hot liquid, and the stiff boiling-water batter is hot. Cooling it to blood-warm lets the yeast survive and start fermenting, so the loaf can rise.

“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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