Name: Steamed Brown Bread
Ingredients: 3 cups Graham flour; 4 cups corn meal; 1 cup molasses; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 quart buttermilk; 1 tablespoon brown sugar

Why it works: Flour and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Steamed Brown Bread

Ingredients

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the Graham flour, corn meal, molasses, baking soda, salt, buttermilk, and brown sugar, and mix until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased steaming mold.
Steam for 6 hours until cooked through.

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.

Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,721 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Buttermilk + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,973 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Molasses + buttermilktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together526 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + corntop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,165 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Graham flour: Provides the bulk and wholesome structure of the bread's crumb.
Corn meal: Adds body and a coarse, tender texture to the crumb.
Molasses: Adds moisture, dark color and a rich sweetness.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to produce gas that lifts the bread.
Buttermilk: Supplies moisture and acidity that activates the baking soda.

The step that matters

Steam for the full time without lifting the lid. Steam holds a steady moist heat that cooks the batter through; lifting the lid or letting the water boil low releases steam and temperature, which can leave the bread dense 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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Steamed Brown Bread