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Bread

Boston Brown Bread

A steamed bread made with white and graham flour, molasses, sour milk, baking powder, 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: Flour and milk 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 ↓

Boston Brown Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Sift and measure the white and graham flour.

  2. In a bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, salt, molasses, sour milk, and baking soda. Mix until well combined.

Steam

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased steaming mold.

  2. Steam for three and a half 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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + molassestop 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).

Flour and milk 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

White flour
Provides the main structure so the bread holds together after steaming.
Graham flour
Adds coarse texture and a nutty, wholesome flavor to the crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to release gas and lighten the bread.
Baking powder
Provides extra leavening so the batter rises during steaming.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture to the bread.
Sour milk
Supplies acidity for the baking soda reaction and keeps the crumb moist.

The step that matters

Steam for the full time without lifting the lid. Steam is the only heat source, so the bread cooks gently and evenly. Lifting the lid or letting the water run low drops the temperature and can leave the loaf dense or gummy in the center.

“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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