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Bread

One Graham Loaf

A loaf made with graham flour, molasses, sour milk, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

One Graham Loaf

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.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Beat the egg until light.

  3. Combine the egg with molasses and sour milk.

Make the batter

  1. Add the graham flour to the mixture in unsifted form.

  2. Sift together the white flour, salt, and baking soda.

  3. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the mixture.

  4. Beat until smooth.

Bake

  1. Pour into a greased loaf pan.

  2. Bake for 1 hour.

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 + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Molasses + milktop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Flour and milk 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 coarse, hearty body and nutty flavour that defines the loaf's texture.
White flour
Adds gluten-forming structure so the loaf holds together better than graham flour alone.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness as it sets in the oven.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to produce gas that lifts the loaf.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to release carbon dioxide, causing the loaf to rise.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark colour, and a deep sweetness that contributes to browning.

The step that matters

Beating the batter until smooth. Thorough mixing develops gluten in the white flour for structure, while the baking soda must be evenly distributed and reacting with the acidic liquids so the loaf rises uniformly instead of unevenly or with dense pockets.

“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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