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Bread

New England Brown Bread

A dense, sweet bread made with Indian meal, rye meal, molasses, raisins, and yeast, baked at 350°F for 8–10 hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Rye and raisin work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 50 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

New England Brown Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Mix the Indian meal and rye meal together in a large bowl.

  2. In a separate container, combine the cool water and molasses.

  3. Dissolve the coarse sea salt in the water mixture.

  4. Dissolve the baking soda in the warm water and add it to the liquid mixture.

  5. Let the mixture stand for 10 minutes.

Bake

  1. Add the raisins and pour the batter into pans.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 8 to 10 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 + raisintop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Baking soda
Reacts with molasses acid to produce gas, lifting and lightening the dense batter.
Compressed yeast
Ferments sugars in the batter, producing gas that helps the bread rise.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture, and its acidity activates the baking soda.
Indian meal
Cornmeal forms the main body and structure of the bread.
Rye meal
Adds flavour and helps give the loaf its dense, moist texture.
Raisins
Add pockets of sweetness and chewy texture throughout the loaf.

The step that matters

Long, low baking. Brown bread batter is very wet and dense, so it needs a long, gentle bake to set through the centre without drying or burning the outside.

“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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