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Bread

Steamed Brown Bread

A steamed bread made with Indian meal, rye meal, molasses, milk, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Rye and milk work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 918 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Steamed Brown Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Dissolve the baking soda in a small amount of boiling water.

  2. In a large bowl, combine Indian meal, rye meal, molasses, milk, and salt.

  3. Add the dissolved baking soda to the mixture and stir well.

Steam

  1. Pour the batter into a greased mold.

  2. Steam for 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.

  1. Rye + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together918 recipes

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

  2. Rye + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Molasses + milktop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Indian meal
Provides the main body and structure of the bread.
Rye meal
Adds earthy flavor and a dense, moist crumb.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to lighten the batter and help it rise.
Milk
Hydrates the meals so the batter can set and steam through.

The step that matters

Steam for 4 hours. Steaming gently and steadily cooks the batter through without drying it. Keeping the water topped up and at a steady simmer ensures even setting of the dense batter.

“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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