Name: Whole Wheat or Graham Bread
Ingredients: 1 pint milk, scalded and cooled; ¼ teaspoon salt; 2 cups all-purpose flour; 6 cups whole wheat flour; 2 teaspoons sugar; ½ yeast cake or ½ cup yeast

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 ↓

Whole Wheat or 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 dough

Mix the milk, salt, all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, sugar, and yeast as you would for ordinary bread.
Knead the dough lightly, as this flour makes a softer dough that requires less kneading.
If the dough is too moist, add a little more flour.

Bake

Bake for about 15 minutes longer than white bread at 350°F (175°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.

Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,418 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together77,875 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

Whole wheat flour: Adds a softer dough and a nutty, denser crumb than white flour.
All-purpose flour: Adds gluten structure that helps the dough hold its shape and rise.
Yeast: Produces gas that makes the dough rise and gives the bread its airy texture.
Milk: Adds moisture and softness to the dough and gives a tender crumb.
Sugar: Feeds the yeast and promotes browning in the crust.

The step that matters

Knead the dough lightly. Whole wheat flour makes a softer dough that requires less kneading. Over-kneading can toughen the crumb and make the loaf dense, so the cook should stop once the dough is smooth and springy.

“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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Whole Wheat or Graham Bread