Name: Boston Brown Bread
Ingredients: 2 cups whole wheat flour; 1 cup cornmeal; 1 cup molasses; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 teaspoon baking powder; 2 cups buttermilk or sour milk

Why it works: Flour and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Boston Brown Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
In a bowl, mix the whole wheat flour, cornmeal, baking soda, and baking powder.
In another bowl, combine the molasses and buttermilk.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, stirring until well combined.
Pour the batter into greased molds.

Bake

Place the molds in a pan with 1 to 2 inches of water to prevent browning.
Bake for about 3 hours, checking that the water does not boil off completely.

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 + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,721 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Molasses + buttermilktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together526 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,429 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Wheat + buttermilktop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together226 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Whole wheat flour: Provides the main structure and the hearty, nutty body of the bread.
Cornmeal: Adds coarse texture and a grainy crumb to the bread.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture to the batter.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic buttermilk and molasses to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Buttermilk: Adds moisture and acidity, which activates the baking soda for rising.

The step that matters

Placing the molds in a water bath. The long, low bake needs gentle, even heat. A pan of water around the molds slows browning and keeps the crumb moist. If the water boils away, the outside can dry and harden before the centre sets.

“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