Skip to main content
Bread

Boston Brown Bread

Boston Brown Bread is a steamed rye, cornmeal, and graham flour bread with molasses, lard, and yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Rye and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,320 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Boston Brown Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sponge

  1. Mix the rye flour, yellow cornmeal, and graham flour together.

  2. Set a sponge by mixing ½ lb of yeast with 12 quarts of water and enough flour to create a soft sponge at 84°F (29°C).

  3. Allow the sponge to ferment for 2.5 hours.

Make the batter

  1. Dissolve the sugar, salt, and molasses in the remaining 13 quarts of water, then add the lard.

  2. Mix the baking soda with the remaining flour, then combine with the sponge mixture until smooth.

Steam and finish

  1. Grease brown bread molds well, fill them half full, and steam for 5 hours.

  2. Allow to cool and pack in waxed paper.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Rye + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together804 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

Rye flour
Provides the bulk and structure of the dense, dark crumb.
Yellow cornmeal
Adds body and a coarse, grainy texture to the crumb.
Graham flour
Contributes bran and a nutty, wholesome flavour and texture.
Yeast
Ferments the sponge, producing gas that lightens the batter.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour, and moisture to the bread.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to add further rising and lightness.

The step that matters

Steaming the molds. Steaming keeps the loaf moist while it sets slowly without a dry crust. Filling the molds only half full leaves room for the batter to rise without overflowing or becoming 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.

More boston brown bread recipes

Ice Cream 3 See all 349 →

You might also like

CornbreadCornbread345 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding336 recipesMilk Bread RollsMilk Bread Rolls242 recipesPotato BreadPotato Bread124 recipes