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New England Rye and Indian Yeast Bread

A yeast bread made with rye flour, Indian meal, molasses, salt, baking soda, and water.

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 ↓

New England Rye and Indian Yeast Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scald 1 quart of Indian meal and let it cool.

  2. Add 1 quart of rye flour, ⅓ cup of molasses, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 cup of active yeast, and 1 teaspoon of baking soda, then mix well and add more water if needed.

Rise and bake

  1. Let the mixture rise.

  2. Bake for 2 hours or steam for 3 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. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Indian meal
Forms the bulk of the loaf and gives it a coarse, hearty crumb.
Rye flour
Adds flavor and structure, though with less gluten it yields a denser crumb.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a darker color to the crust.
Active yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with acidity in the mixture to add additional lift and browning.

The step that matters

Adding water. Meal and rye absorb water at different rates, so the dough must be checked and adjusted until it is moist enough to rise well without becoming sticky.

“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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