Name: Steamed Brown Bread
Ingredients: 2 cups Graham flour; 1 cup cornmeal (Indian meal); 1 tablespoon salt; 1 tablespoon vinegar; 2 cups water; 2 teaspoons baking soda; ½ cup molasses

Why it works: Flour and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,429 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Steamed Brown Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Combine Graham flour, cornmeal, salt, vinegar, water, baking soda, and molasses in a large bowl until well combined.

Steam

Grease a pail and fill it two-thirds full with the batter.
Cover the pail and 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.

Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,429 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Vinegar + molassestop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,253 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + vinegartop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,652 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Graham flour: Provides the bulk and the coarse, hearty structure of the bread.
Cornmeal: Adds body and a grainy texture to the crumb.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic vinegar and molasses to produce gas that leavens the batter.
Vinegar: Reacts with the baking soda to help the bread rise.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture.

The step that matters

Covering and steaming the pail. The pail must be sealed so steam stays inside and heats the batter evenly over the full 3 hours. Filling it only two-thirds full leaves room for the batter to rise without overflowing.

“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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Steamed Brown Bread