Why it works: Flour and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Brown Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Mix the batter
In a large bowl, combine the unbleached flour, cornmeal, buttermilk, warm water, molasses, salt, and baking soda.
Stir the mixture until well combined.
Grease a pan and pour the batter into it.
Steam and finish
Place the pan in a steamer over a pot of boiling water.
Maintain steam and cook for 3 hours.
Remove from the steamer and place on paper.
Set in a moderately heated oven (350°F/175°C) for a short time, just to warm it without browning.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,721 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Buttermilk + molassestop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together526 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 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
- Unbolted flour
- Provides the main structure of the loaf and absorbs the liquid to form the crumb.
- Cornmeal
- Adds coarse body and a crumbly, grainy texture to the bread.
- Buttermilk
- Adds moisture and acidity that reacts with the baking soda to help the bread rise.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, dark color and a deep flavor, and contributes moisture.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to produce gas that leavens the batter.
The step that matters
Maintain steam for the full 3 hours. Steaming keeps the surface moist so the loaf cooks through gently without drying or forming a crust. If the water boils dry or the steam drops, the bread can turn dense or uneven.
“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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