Skip to main content
Bread

Graham Bread

A bread made with wheat sponge, graham flour, molasses, and optional yeast, baked after rising.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Wheat and milk 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 ↓

Graham Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the dough

  1. In a deep bowl, combine the wheat sponge, molasses, and graham flour without sifting.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in a little hot water and add it to the mixture along with the salt.

  3. Mix until the dough is stiff and the spoon moves with difficulty.

  4. If using the alternative method, warm the milk or water, then add the yeast, sugar or molasses, and flour.

Rise and bake

  1. Set the mixture in a cool place (about 60°F) overnight.

  2. In the morning, stir well and pour into two greased pans.

  3. Let it rise for one hour in a warm place, then bake for one 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. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

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

  2. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

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

Wheat sponge
Provides a fermented starter that gives the dough lift and a tangy, developed flavor.
Graham flour
Supplies the bulk of the structure and a coarse, nutty texture to the loaf.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deep color to the crumb and crust.
Baking soda
Releases carbon dioxide when it reacts with acids in the dough, adding lift.

The step that matters

The cool overnight rest. The long, cool rest lets the sponge ferment slowly, building flavor and gas for rise. If the dough gets too warm, fermentation runs too fast and the loaf can turn sour and 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

Steamed 18Quick 13 See all 389 →

You might also like

Wheat BreadWheat Bread65 recipesWhole Wheat BreadWhole Wheat Bread55 recipesBarley Wheat BreadBarley Wheat Bread6 recipesCornbreadCornbread345 recipes