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Bread

Boston Brown Bread

A dense rye and cornmeal bread with molasses or brown sugar, leavened with homemade yeast and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Rye and corn work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 182 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Boston Brown Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, mix rye flour, corn meal, Graham flour, molasses or brown sugar, and salt.

  2. Stir in warm water until the mixture forms a stiff dough.

  3. Let the dough rise for several hours or overnight.

Rise and bake

  1. When the dough is light, dissolve baking soda in warm water and add it to the mixture.

  2. Beat the dough well and transfer it to well-greased deep bread pans.

  3. Allow the dough to rise again.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 3 to 4 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. Rye + corntop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together182 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Rye + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,320 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + corntop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Rye + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Rye flour
Provides the dark, slightly tangy flavour and the body of the loaf.
Corn meal
Adds coarse texture and a sweet corn flavour, keeping the crumb tender.
Molasses or brown sugar
Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture to the dough.
Homemade yeast
Ferments the dough so it rises and becomes light before baking.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses and adds lift, helping the bread rise further in the pan.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda before adding it to the dough. Baking soda must be fully dissolved and mixed evenly through the dough; unevenly distributed soda leaves pockets of bitter flavour and uneven rising. It is added only once the dough is light so its gas release supports the final rise.

“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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