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Bread

Boston Brown Bread

A steamed and baked bread made with sour and sweet milk, molasses, Indian meal, graham flour, salt, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Boston Brown Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Combine sour milk, sweet milk, and molasses in a bowl.

  2. In another bowl, mix Indian meal, graham flour, salt, and baking soda.

  3. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, stirring until well combined.

  4. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan.

Steam and bake

  1. Steam the bread for 5 hours.

  2. After steaming, bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 30 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. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Molasses + flourtop 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).

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

Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to release carbon dioxide, leavening the bread.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture to the crumb.
Indian meal
Cornmeal that gives the bread its coarse texture and body.
Graham flour
Wholewheat flour that adds structure and a nutty, hearty flavour.

The step that matters

Gradually adding the dry ingredients. Adding the dry mix slowly and stirring until just combined keeps the batter smooth and evenly aerated, so the baking soda reacts evenly and lumps of dry flour do not form.

“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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