Name: Steamed Brown Bread
Ingredients: four cups com meal; two cups flour; one cup molasses; two cups sour milk; three cups of sweet milk; one teaspoonful soda; half tea- spoonfuls salt

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 ↓

Steamed Brown Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Combine the cornmeal, flour, molasses, sour milk, sweet milk or water, soda, and salt.
Steam the mixture for three and a half to four hours.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

860Calories

29 gProtein

17 gFat

147 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 6 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Sour Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Molasses	1 tbsp (20g)	58
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Salt	1 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 Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed. 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.

Milk + teatop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together738 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,429 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Molasses + milktop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,243 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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

Cornmeal (in the method): Forms the bulk of the bread and gives it its coarse, hearty texture.
Flour: Adds structure so the steamed batter holds together rather than crumbling.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture to the bread.
Sour milk: Its acidity reacts with the soda so the bread rises and turns tender.
Soda: Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to produce gas that lightens the batter.

The step that matters

Steam the mixture for three and a half to four hours. Steaming gently and steadily cooks the batter through without drying it out. The bread needs a long, moist heat to set and become tender, so the pot should be kept covered and topped up with water.

“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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Steamed Brown Bread