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Brown Bread

Brown Bread is a loaf made from Graham flour, cornmeal, rye meal, Indian meal, molasses, yeast, baking soda, salt, and sour milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Brown Bread

Why it works: Flour and rye match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,320 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Brown Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sponge

  1. In a large bowl, combine warm water and yeast.

  2. Stir in enough Graham flour to create a sponge.

  3. Let the sponge rise.

  4. Once the sponge has risen, add molasses.

  5. Add baking soda.

  6. Mix until the dough is as stiff as soft gingerbread.

  7. Place the dough in pans.

Prepare the second part

  1. For the second part, mix sour milk and molasses in a bowl.

  2. Add baking soda, cornmeal, Graham flour, and salt. Stir well.

Make the dough and bake

  1. For the third part, scald the Indian meal. Mix the scalded Indian meal with rye meal.

  2. Add molasses, salt, baking soda, and yeast. Mix with warm water until stiff.

  3. Let the mixture rise overnight.

  4. Transfer the dough to a large pan. Smooth the top with a wet hand. Let it stand briefly.

  5. Bake for 5 to 6 hours, or overnight if started late in the day.

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.

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.

  1. Flour + ryetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,320 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + ryetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together918 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Molasses + ryetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Yeast
Ferments the sponge so the dough rises and becomes light.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and a dark color to the bread.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to release gas and lift the loaf.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds tenderness.
Cornmeal
Adds coarse texture and body to the crumb.
Indian meal
Forms the bulk of the loaf, giving structure and a hearty texture.

The step that matters

Let the mixture rise overnight. Yeast needs time to ferment the stiff, heavy dough. Rising slowly builds flavor and lightness; a rushed rise leaves a dense loaf.

“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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