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Indian Bread

A yeast‑leavened bread made with Indian meal, Graham flour, wheat flour, butter, and milk or water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and wheat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Indian Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the batter

  1. Scald the Indian meal with the boiling milk or water.

  2. Let it cool.

  3. Add the Graham flour, wheat flour, melted butter, salt, and yeast dissolved in warm water. Mix well.

  4. Let it sit overnight.

  5. Stir the mixture down.

Rise and bake

  1. Transfer it to a well-buttered pan.

  2. Let it rise for 30 minutes.

  3. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until done.

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. Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Wheat + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Indian meal
Cornmeal that is scalded to soften it and give the bread a coarse, moist texture.
Graham flour
Adds a nutty flavour and a heavier, more textured crumb than white flour.
Wheat flour
Provides gluten that gives the dough structure and helps it hold its shape.
Yeast
Ferments the batter, producing gas that makes the bread rise and become airy.
Melted butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and gives a richer flavour.

The step that matters

Stir the mixture down after overnight rest. Deflating the slow-fermented batter releases built-up gas and redistributes the yeast, so the second rise is even and the crumb is not coarse or uneven.

“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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