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Steamed Boston Brown Bread

A steamed bread made with molasses, sweet milk, raisins, butter, lard, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Steamed Boston Brown Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix molasses, sweet milk, and sugar until combined.

  2. Add chopped raisins, butter, lard, salt, baking powder, cloves, and cinnamon; stir well.

  3. Pour the mixture into a greased steaming mold.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam for about 2 to 3 hours until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. Let cool slightly before removing from the mold.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds sweetness, deep flavor, and moisture to the bread.
Sweet milk
Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and forms the batter.
Baking powder
Releases gas that lifts the batter so the bread rises and turns light.
Butter and lard
Adds fat for tenderness and a moist crumb.
Raisins
Add pockets of sweetness and chewy texture throughout the bread.

The step that matters

Steaming until a toothpick comes out clean. Steamed breads are dense and moist, so they must cook fully through. Underbaked centers stay gummy, while the steam supplies steady gentle heat that sets the crumb without drying the edges.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, milk, sugar, raisin, butter, cinnamon):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Gingerfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, sugar, raisin, butter, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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