Why it works: Flour and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Brown Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Mix the batter
In a large bowl, combine the unbleached flour, cornmeal, buttermilk, warm water, molasses, salt, and baking soda. Mix all the ingredients well until smooth.
Grease a pan and pour the batter into it.
Steam and bake
Place the pan in a steamer over a pot of boiling water.
Steam the bread for 3 hours, maintaining the steam throughout.
After steaming, remove the bread and place it on paper.
Set the bread in a 350°F (175°C) oven for a short time, just to avoid browning.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,721 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Buttermilk + molassestop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together526 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Unbolted flour
- Provides the main structure of the bread, setting it as the batter cooks.
- Cornmeal
- Adds body and a coarse, grainy texture to the crumb.
- Buttermilk
- Adds moisture and tang, and its acidity reacts with the baking soda.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, dark color and a deep flavor.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to release gas, helping the bread rise.
The step that matters
Maintaining the steam throughout steaming. If steam drops during the three-hour steaming, the surface dries and the bread can turn dense or uneven, and the rising from the baking soda can stall. Keeping water boiling and the steamer sealed keeps the moisture steady.
“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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