Why it works: Milk and flour 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 ↓
Steamed Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Mix the batter
In a large bowl, combine milk, cornmeal, brown flour, molasses, baking soda, and salt, then mix until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased pan.
Steam
Steam for 3 hours.
If you prefer to bake, bake until a crust forms.
Let the bread stand for 2 minutes covered with a thick cloth after steaming to prevent sticking.
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.
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,243 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Milk and flour 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
- Milk
- Supplies the liquid that hydrates the flours and cornmeal into a batter.
- Cornmeal
- Gives the bread its coarse, crumbly body as its starch sets during cooking.
- Brown flour
- Adds gluten-based structure and a nutty flavour to the batter.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, moisture, dark colour and a deep flavour.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the molasses's acidity to release gas that lifts the batter.
The step that matters
Steam for the full 3 hours. The batter only sets once it has been heated through evenly and long enough. Stopping early leaves the centre dense and gummy, because the starches in the cornmeal and flour have not fully gelatinised and the baking soda's rise is locked in too late.
“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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