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Bread

Boston Brown Bread

A dense bread made with Indian meal, rye meal, sweet and sour milk, molasses, baking soda, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Boston Brown Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix the Indian meal, rye meal, sweet milk, sour milk, molasses, and salt.

  2. Add the baking soda last and mix well.

  3. Pour the mixture into a mold.

Cook

  1. Boil for three 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. Milk + molassestop 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
Cornmeal gives the bread its body and crumb structure.
Rye meal
Rye flour adds a dense, moist texture and deeper flavor.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with baking soda to help the bread rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in sour milk to produce gas for rising.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and moisture to the batter.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and helps bind the meals into a batter.

The step that matters

Adding the baking soda last and mixing well. Baking soda reacts with the acid in sour milk as soon as it is wet, releasing gas. If it is not mixed in evenly, the bread rises unevenly. Getting the batter into the mold promptly keeps that gas in the batter rather than lost before cooking.

“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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