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Bread

Boston Brown Bread

A steamed loaf made from cornmeal, graham flour, sour milk, baking soda, molasses, raisins, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Boston Brown Bread

6 loaves

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix the cornmeal, graham flour, sour milk, saleratus, molasses, raisins, and sugar until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into 1-pound baking powder cans.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam the cans for 2½ hours.

  2. This recipe will make 6 loaves.

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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + coffeetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  3. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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 sour milk to produce gas, helping the loaves rise and lighten.
Sour milk
Provides acidity that activates the baking soda and moistens the batter.
Graham flour
Forms the structure of the loaves and gives them a hearty, wholesome texture.
Cornmeal
Adds body and a coarse, crumbly texture to the bread.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture, and helps the bread stay tender.

The step that matters

Filling the cans. The batter must be packed into the cans without overfilling, since the bread rises during steaming. Too much batter can overflow or leave the loaves dense and misshapen. Leaving room at the top lets the rising batter expand evenly.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, molasses, coffee, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Peachfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, molasses, coffee, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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