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Bread

Boston Brown Bread

A moist, sweet bread made with sour milk, molasses, Graham flour, cornmeal, and baking soda, steamed for 3 hours.

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

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine sour milk and molasses.

  2. Add Graham flour, cornmeal, salt, and baking soda; mix well.

  3. If desired, fold in raisins.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan.

  2. Steam for 3 hours.

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).

  5. Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with baking soda, producing gas that lifts the batter and tenderizes the crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to release carbon dioxide, leavening the bread.
Graham flour
Provides the bulk of the structure and a coarse, wholesome texture.
Cornmeal
Adds body and a slightly grainy texture to the loaf.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and the dark color and flavor typical of this bread.

The step that matters

Keep the loaf covered and steaming for the full time. Steaming cooks the batter gently with moist heat, so it sets without drying. Lifting the lid or letting the water boil low can leave the loaf dense or unevenly cooked.

“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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