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Boston Brown Bread

A moist loaf made with Graham flour, cornmeal, molasses, milk, baking soda, and cream of tartar, steamed then baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk 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

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the batter

  1. Mix Graham flour, cornmeal, molasses, milk, baking soda, and cream of tartar in a large bowl until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a greased loaf pan.

Steam and bake

  1. Steam the loaf for 5 hours, ensuring the water is boiling and the pan is covered tightly.

  2. Bake the loaf in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 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. Flour + milktop 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 + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

  4. Molasses + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,408 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

Flour and milk 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

Graham flour
Provides the coarse, wholesome body and nutty flavour of the loaf.
Cornmeal
Adds a grainy, slightly crumbly texture and helps the loaf hold its shape.
New orleans molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture, and a deep caramel flavour.
Milk
Hydrates the flours so the batter forms a thick, pourable mixture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce carbon dioxide, lifting the loaf.
Cream of tartar
Acts as an acid that reacts with the baking soda, helping the loaf rise and stay tender.

The step that matters

Keeping the steaming water boiling and the pan tightly covered. Steam is what cooks and sets this dense batter. If the water stops boiling or the cover leaks, the steam drops and the loaf can turn out heavy and gummy.

“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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