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Bread

Bran Bread

A loaf of bread made with bran, flour, sugar, molasses, buttermilk, baking soda, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Bran Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Mix the batter

  1. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

  2. Add the bran and brown sugar to the dry ingredients.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in the molasses and add it to the buttermilk.

  4. Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients until well combined.

  5. Beat the mixture well and pour it into a greased loaf pan.

Bake

  1. Bake for 1½ hours in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C).

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. Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Molasses + buttermilktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together526 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Flour
Forms the main structure that holds the loaf together as it bakes.
Buttermilk
Adds moisture and acidity that react with the baking soda to help the bread rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to produce gas that lifts the loaf.
Baking powder
Provides additional lift as it releases gas in the batter during baking.
Cooking bran
Adds fibre-rich texture and absorbs liquid, giving the loaf a coarse, hearty crumb.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the crust brown during baking.

The step that matters

Mixing the wet and dry ingredients. Stir just until combined. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour and can make the loaf tough and dense, while the leavening gases the baking soda and powder produce are released quickly once the wet and dry ingredients meet, so the batter should go into the pan and oven promptly.

“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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