Name: Brown Bread, Steamed
Ingredients: 1 cup wheat flour; 1 cup graham flour; 1 cup corn meal; 2 cups sweet milk; 1 cup sour milk; 2 cups dark molasses; 1 teaspoon baking soda

Why it works: Wheat and corn match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 465 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓

Brown Bread, Steamed

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

In a bowl, mix wheat flour, graham flour, corn meal, sweet milk, sour milk, and dark molasses.
Dissolve the baking soda in the molasses and add to the mixture.
Pour the batter into cans.

Steam

Place the cans in a double boiler.
Steam for 3 to 4 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.

Wheat + corntop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together465 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,418 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,955 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + corntop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,165 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Wheat flour: Provides the main structure of the bread.
Graham flour: Adds coarse texture and a nutty, wholesome flavor.
Corn meal: Adds grainy texture and body to the batter.
Sour milk: Its acidity reacts with baking soda to help the bread rise.
Dark molasses: Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deep color to the bread.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to produce gas for rising.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in the molasses and add to the mixture.. Baking soda must be fully dispersed so it reacts evenly with the acidic sour milk and molasses. Uneven distribution leaves pockets of bitter soda 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.

Cornbread345 recipes

Wheat Bread65 recipes

Whole Wheat Bread55 recipes

Barley Wheat Bread6 recipes

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Brown Bread, Steamed