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Bread

Boston Brown Bread

A steamed loaf made from rye, graham, wheat flour, cornmeal, molasses, sour milk, water, baking soda, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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

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.

Mix the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine the rye flour, graham flour, wheat flour, cornmeal, molasses, sour milk, and water.

  2. Add the baking soda and salt, mixing until well combined.

  3. Pour the mixture into a greased loaf pan.

Steam and dry

  1. Steam the bread for 3 hours.

  2. After steaming, dry the bread in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1 hour.

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 + wheattop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together404 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. 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

Rye flour
Adds a dense, moist crumb and a distinctive earthy flavor.
Cornmeal
Gives the bread its coarse texture and yellow color.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and moisture to the loaf.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to help the bread rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Graham flour
Contributes coarse bran and nutty flavor along with structure.

The step that matters

Keeping the pan sealed and the steam steady during steaming. The bread rises and sets through moist heat. If water boils off or steam escapes, the loaf can turn out dry, dense or undercooked in the centre, so the pot needs enough water throughout the 3 hours.

“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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