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Bread

Montgomery Brown Bread

A molasses-based bread made with cornmeal, Graham flour, and milk, steamed and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Montgomery 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 molasses, baking soda, and salt.

  2. Add the cornmeal, Graham flour, and milk; stir until combined.

  3. Fill one-pound coffee cans two-thirds full with the batter.

Steam and bake

  1. Steam the cans for four hours.

  2. After steaming, bake the cans in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

  3. Serve the bread hot or cold.

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. Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. 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

Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and the dark color and flavor of the bread.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk and molasses to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Cornmeal
Gives the bread a coarse, crumbly texture and structure.
Graham flour
Provides the bulk of the structure along with a nutty, whole-grain flavor.
Milk
Hydrates the flours and cornmeal and, being slightly sour, activates the baking soda.

The step that matters

Filling the cans two-thirds full. Batter rises while steaming, so overfilling can cause it to spill or bake dense at the top. Leaving room lets the bread expand evenly.

“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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