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Steamed Indian Bread

A steamed bread made with sweet and sour milk, cornmeal, flour, molasses, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Steamed Indian Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Mix the flour, cornmeal, and salt in a bowl.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in the sweet milk.

  3. In another bowl, mix the sour milk, molasses, and vinegar.

  4. Add the dissolved baking soda and sweet milk to the sour mixture.

  5. Stir in the cornmeal and flour mixture. Beat well.

Steam

  1. Pour into greased tins.

  2. Steam for 2 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 + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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. Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Molasses + vinegartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,253 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Flour + vinegartop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,652 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Cornmeal
Forms the bulk of the bread and gives it its coarse, crumbly structure.
Flour
Adds gluten-based structure so the steamed loaf holds together.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the sour milk and vinegar to produce gas that lightens the bread.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds a tangy flavour and tender texture.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour, and moisture to the batter.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda and combine it with the acid. Baking soda only lifts the batter when it meets acid. Combining it with the sour milk mixture while the batter is still wet lets the gas form in the batter, so the bread rises during steaming rather than falling flat.

“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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