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Steamed Coen Beead

A steamed bread made from cornmeal, flour, sour milk, molasses, soda, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Home for the Friendless (Chicago, Ill.) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,243 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Steamed Coen Beead

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the batter

  1. Take three cups of meal and one cup of flour.

  2. Scald two cups of the meal with boiling water.

  3. Add the remaining cup of meal and the remaining cup of flour.

  4. Add two cups of sour milk, one cup of molasses, one teaspoon of soda, and a little salt.

Steam

  1. Steam for three hours.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

256Calories
8 gProtein
8 gFat
40 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Sour Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Molasses1 tbsp (20g)58
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By Home for the Friendless (Chicago, Ill.). 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 + molassestop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Meal
Forms the main body of the bread, with its starch setting into a crumb as it cooks.
Flour (in the method)
Adds gluten-based structure that helps the loaf hold together.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the soda to release gas, helping the bread rise, and adds moisture.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, a dark colour and a rich flavour.
Soda
Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to produce gas that lightens the batter.

The step that matters

Scald two cups of the meal with boiling water. Boiling water gelatinizes the cornmeal starch, which softens the grain and helps the finished bread stay moist and tender rather than gritty.

“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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