Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Brown Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a large bowl, combine sweet milk, sour milk, graham flour, cornmeal, molasses, salt, baking soda, and stewed raisins. Mix until well combined.
Prepare the pan
Line the bottom of a pan with greased paper.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
Steam and bake
Steam for 3 hours.
Bake for 20 minutes.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,577 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,155 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).
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Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Graham flour
- Provides the hearty structure and wholesome, nutty body of the bread.
- Cornmeal
- Adds a coarse, crumbly texture and a grainy bite to the loaf.
- Sour milk
- Reacts with the baking soda to lift the batter and adds gentle tang.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that makes the bread rise.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deep brown color to the crumb.
The step that matters
Steam for 3 hours. Steaming keeps the batter moist while it sets, so the bread cooks through without drying. Baking soda reacts with the sour milk when the batter is mixed, so the batter should go into the pan and into the steam without long delay to keep the 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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