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Steamed Brown Bread

A steamed bread made with milk, cornmeal, rye meal, molasses, baking soda, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and rye work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 918 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Steamed Brown Bread

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, combine the milk, Indian meal, rye meal, molasses, baking soda, and salt, and mix until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a greased steaming mold.

  3. Steam for 4 hours.

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 + ryetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together918 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. 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

Indian meal (cornmeal)
Provides the main structure and bulk of the bread's crumb.
Rye meal
Adds earthy flavor and a denser, moister crumb to the bread.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, color, and moisture, and a deep caramel-like flavor.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to produce gas, lightening the bread as it steams.
Milk
Hydrates the meals so the batter forms a pourable mixture and adds tenderness.

The step that matters

Steam for 4 hours. Steaming must hold a steady, gentle simmer with water kept topped up, because the batter sets through gentle moist heat. Uneven or low heat can leave the bread gummy or underbaked in the center.

“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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