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Indian Meal Bread

A steamed bread made with Indian meal, molasses, wheat flour, sweet milk, baking soda, and hot water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Indian Meal Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the Indian meal, molasses, wheat flour, and sweet milk.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in a little hot water and stir it into the molasses mixture.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan.

  2. Steam for 2.5 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. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Molasses + milktop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

Indian meal
Cornmeal forms the bulk of the loaf and gives it its coarse, crumbly structure.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark sweetness and a deep flavour to the batter.
Wheat flour
Adds gluten-forming protein that helps hold the loaf together.
Sweet milk
Hydrates the cornmeal and flour, giving the batter its liquid base and tenderness.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to release gas, helping the loaf rise and lighten.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda. Baking soda must be fully dissolved and stirred evenly through the molasses batter so it reacts with the acid in the molasses. Unevenly mixed soda leaves dense pockets or bitter patches and poor 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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