Skip to main content
Bread

Boston Brown Bread

Boston Brown Bread is a steamed bread made with sour milk, sour cream, cornmeal, all-purpose flour, graham flour, syrup, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cream and syrup are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,964 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Boston Brown Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine sour milk, sour cream, cornmeal, all-purpose flour, graham flour, syrup, and salt.

  2. Add baking soda and mix well.

  3. If sour cream is unavailable, use 2 cups sour milk and 1 tablespoon melted butter instead.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased mold.

  2. 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. Cream + syruptop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + syruptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,540 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

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

Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and sour cream to produce gas that leavens the bread.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds tang and moisture to the batter.
Graham flour
Coarse whole-grain flour that gives the bread its brown color, nutty flavor and dense texture.
Cornmeal
Adds coarse grain and body, giving the bread a crumbly, slightly gritty texture.
Syrup
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the bread stay soft and dark.
Sour cream
Adds fat and richness, softening the crumb and adding moisture.

The step that matters

Add baking soda and mix well. Baking soda needs the acid in the sour milk to release gas for leavening. It must be evenly mixed through the batter, or the bread will rise unevenly and may taste bitter in spots.

“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.

More boston brown bread recipes

Ice Cream 3 See all 349 →

You might also like

CornbreadCornbread345 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding336 recipesMilk Bread RollsMilk Bread Rolls242 recipesPotato BreadPotato Bread124 recipes