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Bread

Boston Brown Bread

A steamed and baked bread made with sour milk, molasses, graham flour, cornmeal, 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 flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 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 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine sour milk, molasses, graham flour, cornmeal, baking soda, and salt. Mix until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a greased steaming mold.

Steam and bake

  1. Steam for 3 hours.

  2. After steaming, bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 10 minutes.

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 + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Milk and flour 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

Sour milk
Reacts with the baking soda to produce gas, which lifts and lightens the bread.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to release carbon dioxide, leavening the batter.
Graham flour
Provides the bread's structure and its hearty, whole-grain texture.
Cornmeal
Adds coarse texture and body, helping the bread hold its crumb.
New orleans molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and a deep, rich flavor.

The step that matters

Pour the batter into a greased mold and steam for the full time. Steaming keeps the bread moist while the baking soda and sour milk leaven it. The mold must be well greased so the bread releases cleanly, and it should be filled no more than about two-thirds full so the batter has room to rise.

“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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