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Bread

Steamed Brown Bread

A steamed bread made with milk, Indian meal, 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

Make the batter

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

  2. Pour the mixture into a greased steaming mold.

Steam

  1. 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 bulk and dense, crumbly structure of the bread.
Rye meal
Rye flour adds earthy flavor and body, with less gluten to build a rise.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture, and a rich caramel-like flavor.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to produce gas that lightens the batter.
Milk
Hydrates the meals so the batter forms a pourable mixture and keeps the loaf moist.

The step that matters

Pour the batter into a greased mold. The batter is loose and rises as it steams, so the mold must be greased to release the loaf cleanly and filled without overfilling to leave room for expansion.

“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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