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Bread

Boston Brown Bread

A steamed and oven-browned bread made with Indian corn-meal, rye-meal, molasses, milk, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Corn and rye work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 182 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Boston Brown Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Dissolve the baking soda in the milk.

  2. Combine the corn-meal, rye-meal, molasses, and milk mixture in a bowl.

  3. Pour the batter into a buttered tin pudding boiler.

Steam and brown

  1. Steam for 5 hours.

  2. Remove the cover and place in a 400°F (200°C) oven to brown.

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. Corn + ryetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together182 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. 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

Corn-meal
Provides the main body and crumb structure of the bread.
Rye-meal
Adds a dense, earthy texture and deeper flavour to the loaf.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and dark colour, and its acidity reacts with the baking soda.
Baking soda
Releases carbon dioxide when it reacts with the acidic molasses, lifting the batter.
Milk
Hydrates the meals so they form a batter and adds moisture.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in the milk first. Dissolving the soda in the liquid before mixing spreads it evenly through the batter. It then reacts with the acidic molasses throughout, so the bread rises evenly instead of forming pockets or dense patches.

“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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