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 (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the batter
In a large bowl, combine warm water, brown sugar or molasses, hop-yeast, and salt.
Thicken the mixture with unbleached flour to create a thin batter.
Stir in more flour until the mixture is quite stiff.
Rise and shape
In the morning, add baking soda and enough flour to make the batter very stiff.
Transfer the batter into pans.
Let the batter rise again.
Keep the dough warm while it rises.
Smooth the tops of the loaves with a spoon or knife dipped in water.
Bake
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C), starting at a lower temperature.
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
- Hop-yeast
- Ferments the batter so it rises and gains a lightly sour, yeasty flavor.
- Brown sugar or molasses
- Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and a darker color to the crumb.
- Unbolted flour
- Provides the gluten and starch that build the structure of the loaf.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with acidic components in the batter to add extra lift and lightness.
The step that matters
Adding the baking soda in the morning and stiffening the batter. Baking soda releases gas only when it reacts with an acid and loses its lift if it sits too long or is mixed unevenly. Stiffening the batter with enough flour holds that gas so the loaves rise rather than collapse.
“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
Cornbread345 recipes
Bread Pudding336 recipes
Milk Bread Rolls242 recipes
Potato Bread124 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.