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Steamed Brown Bread

A steamed bread made with cornmeal, flour, milk, molasses, and baking soda.

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 ↓

Steamed 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.

Prepare the batter

  1. Dissolve the baking soda in hot water.

  2. Mix the dissolved soda with half of the sour milk and half with the molasses.

  3. Combine the cornmeal, flour, sweet milk, sour milk mixture, and molasses mixture.

Steam and bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased steaming dish.

  2. Steam for 3 hours.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes until the top is browned.

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. Milk + molassestop 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

Yellow cornmeal
Provides the main body and structure of the cornbread.
Flour
Adds structure so the batter holds together after steaming.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and tenderizes the crumb.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deep brown color.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and softness to the batter.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda fully before mixing. Baking soda needs to be fully dissolved so it reacts evenly with the sour milk and molasses. Undissolved pockets can leave uneven rising and bitter, soapy patches in the finished bread.

“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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