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Bread

Steamed Brown Bread

A steamed bread made with molasses, cornmeal, graham flour, white flour, baking soda, egg, sweet milk, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Steamed Brown Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Dissolve the baking soda in hot water and mix it into the molasses.

  2. Beat in the egg and then add the sweet milk.

  3. In a large bowl, combine the cornmeal, graham flour, white flour, and salt.

  4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well.

Steam

  1. Transfer the mixture to a greased steaming mold.

  2. Steam for three and a half 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.

  1. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Molasses + milktop 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

Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses acid to lighten the bread and give it rise.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture, and its acidity activates the baking soda.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets.
Cornmeal
Provides the coarse, crumbly body that gives steamed brown bread its texture.
Graham flour
Contributes a hearty, nutty texture and helps hold the loaf together.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and richness to hydrate the flours.

The step that matters

Mix the baking soda into the molasses. Baking soda needs an acid to react, and molasses supplies it. Dissolving the soda evenly before combining prevents pockets of bitter residue and uneven rise.

“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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