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Bread

Boston Brown Bread

A steamed bread made with white flour, rye meal, cornmeal, molasses, baking soda, milk, and optional 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

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the molasses with the baking soda until foamy.

  2. Add the white flour, rye meal, cornmeal, and milk to the mixture.

  3. Stir until well combined.

  4. If desired, fold in a few raisins.

Steam

  1. Pour the batter into a steamer and steam for four 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. Flour + ryetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,320 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Rye + raisintop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50 recipes

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

  4. Rye + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together918 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas, lightening the batter.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and dark color, and its acidity activates the baking soda.
White flour
Provides the main structure as the batter sets during steaming.
Rye meal
Adds a dense texture and a earthy, slightly tangy flavor.
Cornmeal
Contributes body and a coarser, crumbly texture to the bread.
Milk
Hydrates the flours and provides moisture for a tender crumb.

The step that matters

Stir the molasses and baking soda until foamy. Baking soda needs an acid to release carbon dioxide. Mixing it into molasses first lets the gas form before the batter sets, so the bread rises and stays light rather than dense.

“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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