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Boston Brown Bread

A steamed and baked bread made with whole wheat flour, Indian meal, molasses, sour milk, baking soda, cold water, and seeded raisins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Boston Brown 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.

Mix the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix the whole wheat flour, Indian meal, molasses, sour milk, baking soda, and cold water.

  2. Just before steaming, fold in the seeded raisins.

Steam and brown

  1. Pour the mixture into a steamer over cold water.

  2. Bring the water to a boil and keep it boiling for 4 hours.

  3. After steaming, brown the bread in a 350°F (175°C) oven.

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 + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Wheat + raisintop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together163 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Whole wheat flour
Provides the main structure and a hearty, dense crumb.
Indian meal
Adds coarse texture and body that holds the loaf together.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and moisture to the batter.
Sour milk
Adds acidity and moisture, and reacts with the baking soda.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to produce gas that lightens the loaf.

The step that matters

Keep the steamer boiling for the full 4 hours. If the water stops boiling, the steam drops and the bread turns heavy and wet. Steady steam cooks the batter through evenly while the baking soda keeps the loaf rising.

“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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