Name: Boston Brown Bread
Ingredients: 1 cup corn meal flour; 2 cups sour milk; 1 cup molasses; 2 teaspoons; 1 coffee cup raisins; 6 loaves

Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Boston Brown Bread

6 loaves

Ingredients

Directions

Steam for 2½ hours in pound baking powder cans.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

801Calories

24 gProtein

11 gFat

155 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Sour Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Corn	1/2 cup kernels (82g)	77
Grape	1/2 cup (76g)	62
Molasses	1 tbsp (20g)	58
Coffee	not in our table	0

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

By Warren, Pa. Presbyterian church. Second auxiliary missionary society. [from old catalog]. 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.

Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + coffeetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,202 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,955 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,577 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,165 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Corn meal flour: Forms the bulk of the dense, crumbly structure of the bread.
Sour milk: Its acidity reacts with the leavening to lift the batter and adds moisture.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, dark colour and a moist, rich texture.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, flour, milk, molasses, coffee):

Vanillafits about as well
Raisinthe original
Figfits less well
Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, flour, milk, molasses, coffee. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.