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Boston Brown Bread

A loaf of rye and cornmeal bread sweetened with molasses and baked after steaming.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Rye and corn 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

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the batter

  1. Dissolve the baking soda in the sour milk.

  2. Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl.

  3. Pour the mixture into a greased loaf pan.

Steam and bake

  1. Steam for four hours.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for twenty minutes.

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 + corntop 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. 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

Corn meal
Provides the bulk and coarse, crumbly texture of the bread.
Rye meal
Adds an earthy flavor and a denser, moister crumb than wheat flour gives.
Sour milk
Supplies moisture and acidity that reacts with the baking soda.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and the dark color of the loaf.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to release gas, helping the bread rise.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in the sour milk first. Baking soda must be fully dissolved before mixing so it spreads evenly through the batter. Undissolved pockets react unevenly, leaving some areas bitter, soapy or uneven in rise.

“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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