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Bread

Boston Brown Bread

A dense, sweet rye and cornmeal bread baked at 350°F for 3–4 hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix together the rye flour, cornmeal, all-purpose flour, molasses (or sugar), and salt.

  2. Stir in enough sour milk to form a thick batter that can be stirred with a spoon.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in the tablespoon of water and add it to the batter.

Bake

  1. Turn the batter into well-greased bread pans.

  2. Let the batter rise until light, then bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 3 to 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. 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. Flour + molassestop 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

Rye flour
Gives the bread its dense, dark, slightly earthy structure.
Cornmeal
Adds bulk, coarse texture and a golden crumb to the loaf.
All-purpose flour
Provides gluten-based structure so the loaf holds together.
Molasses or brown sugar
Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture to the crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that lightens the batter.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda and letting the batter rise. Baking soda needs an acid, such as sour milk, to release carbon dioxide. Mixing it into the batter well and allowing the batter to rise before baking lets that gas lighten the dense loaf.

“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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