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Bread

Real Boston Brown Bread

A moist brown bread made with graham flour, Indian meal, sour milk, molasses, sweet milk, and soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and tea work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 738 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Real Boston Brown Bread

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine one cup of graham flour, two cups of Indian meal, one and a half cups of sweet milk, one cup of sour milk, one cup of molasses, and one teaspoon of soda.

  2. Steam the mixture for three hours without moving.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

860Calories
29 gProtein
17 gFat
147 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Sour Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Molasses1 tbsp (20g)58
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

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. See the original page.

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. Milk + teatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together738 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  2. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Flour + teatop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together449 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Graham flour
Gives the bread its body and a coarse, nutty texture.
Indian meal
Adds structure and a crumbly, cornmeal texture to the loaf.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the soda so the bread rises and stays tender.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and the dark brown colour.
Soda
Produces gas with the acidic sour milk, lifting the batter as it steams.

The step that matters

Steam without moving. Steaming sets the batter as it rises. Disturbing the mixture during steaming can knock out the gas bubbles that lift it, leaving a denser, heavier loaf.

“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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