Name: Boston Brown Bread with Soda
Ingredients: 1 pound rye flour; 2 pounds cornmeal; 1 pound graham flour; 1 quart molasses; 1 pound wheat flour; 3 pints milk; 2 ounces salt; 1 ounce baking soda

Why it works: Rye and wheat match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 404 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Boston Brown Bread with Soda

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.

Prepare the batter

Mix the rye, cornmeal, graham, and wheat flours together.
Dissolve the baking soda in the milk.
Make a well in the dry ingredients and mix in the milk and molasses to form a soft batter, adding more milk if needed.

Bake

Pour the batter into greased molds.
Bake or steam for three hours at 350°F (175°C).

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.

Rye + wheattop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together404 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,418 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Rye + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,320 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Rye + milktop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together918 recipes

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

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, helping the bread rise.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture to the batter.
Cornmeal: Gives the bread its coarse, crumbly texture and body.
Rye flour: Adds flavor and a dense, moist crumb with some structure.
Milk: Hydrates the flours and forms a soft batter that sets during baking.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in the milk. Baking soda must be fully dissolved so it reacts evenly with the acidic molasses. Lumps can leave pockets of bitter flavor and uneven rising.

“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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Boston Brown Bread with Soda