Why it works: Flour and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,429 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Graham 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
Make a thin batter with Graham flour.
Let it rise until light.
Bake
Divide the batter into loaf tins immediately.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1 hour and 30 minutes, depending on loaf size.
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.
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Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Graham flour
- Provides the main structure of the loaf, with its bran giving the bread a coarser, denser crumb.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, moisture and a darker colour through browning during baking.
The step that matters
Divide the batter into loaf tins immediately. The batter has risen and its air bubbles are fragile. Delaying the transfer lets the gas escape and can leave the loaves flatter and unevenly textured once baked.
“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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