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Bread

Boston Brown Bread

A steamed loaf made with cornmeal, rye meal, molasses, Graham flour, and sour milk, baked to dry the tops of the loaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Rye and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,320 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Boston Brown Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Mix and sift the dry ingredients.

  2. Add the molasses and milk, and beat thoroughly.

  3. Turn the mixture into well buttered molds.

Steam and dry

  1. Steam for 3½ hours, ensuring the covers are buttered and tied down if necessary.

  2. Remove the covers when done and set the molds in the oven to dry the tops of the loaves.

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 + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,320 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Rye + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together918 recipes

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

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Cornmeal
Gives the loaf its coarse, crumbly body and characteristic texture.
Rye meal
Adds a dense, hearty structure and earthy flavour to the loaf.
New orleans molasses
Provides moisture, sweetness, and a dark colour to the bread.
Graham flour
Contributes structure and a nutty, wholesome texture to the loaf.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to leaven the batter and lighten the crumb.

The step that matters

Steam for 3½ hours. Steaming keeps the batter moist while it sets and rises gently. Tightly sealed covers hold in steam; if they leak, water can enter and the loaf turns soggy or unevenly cooked.

“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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