Name: Boston Steamed Brown Bread
Ingredients: 1 pint sour milk; 2 cups all-purpose flour (or 1 cup all-purpose flour and 1 cup graham flour); 1 cup cornmeal; 1 cup molasses; 1 teaspoon baking soda; ¼ teaspoon salt

Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Boston Steamed Brown Bread

Ingredients

1 pint sour milk
2 cups all-purpose flour (or 1 cup all-purpose flour and 1 cup graham flour)
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup molasses
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt

Directions

Make the batter

In a large bowl, combine sour milk, flour, cornmeal, molasses, baking soda, and salt. Mix until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a buttered mold or pound baking powder cans.

Steam

Steam for three hours.

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.

Milk + flourtop 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).
Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,243 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Milk and flour 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

Sour milk: Its acidity reacts with baking soda so the bread rises and turns tender.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to produce gas that lifts the bread.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture, and gives the bread its characteristic flavour.
Flour: Provides the structure that holds the bread together as it steams.
Cornmeal: Adds a coarser texture and body to the crumb.

“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.