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Steamed Brown Bread

A steamed bread made with molasses, sour milk, graham flour, cornmeal, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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

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.

Make the batter

  1. Combine molasses, sour milk, and the baking soda mixture in a large bowl.

  2. Add graham flour, cornmeal, and salt, and mix until well combined.

  3. Fill baking powder cans three-quarters full with the dough.

Steam and finish

  1. Steam the cans for three hours.

  2. After steaming, place the cans in a 350°F (175°C) oven for a few minutes.

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. 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

Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture for a dense, moist crumb.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to lift the bread, and it adds moisture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to release gas, making the bread rise.
Graham flour
Provides structure and a coarse, wholesome texture from the bran and germ.
Cornmeal
Adds body and a slightly grainy texture to the crumb.

The step that matters

Fill the cans no more than three-quarters full. The batter rises during steaming. Overfilling can push dough out of the cans or leave the center underbaked, while the baking soda and sour milk reaction needs room to lift the 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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