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Steamed Brown Bread

A moist, sweet bread made by steaming a batter of molasses, sour milk, Graham flour, cornmeal, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 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.

Prepare the batter

  1. Dissolve the baking soda in warm water.

  2. In a large bowl, mix molasses, sour milk, Graham flour, cornmeal, and salt.

  3. Add the dissolved baking soda to the mixture and stir well.

Steam and finish

  1. Pour the batter into a greased steaming mold.

  2. Steam for 3 hours.

  3. After steaming, place the bread in a 350°F (175°C) oven for a few 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. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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 to produce gas, helping the bread rise and lighten.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds moisture and a tangy note.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture to the crumb.
Graham flour
Provides the structure of the bread, with coarse bran giving a hearty texture.
Cornmeal
Adds a coarser texture and body to the crumb.

The step that matters

Steam for the full 3 hours. Steaming keeps the batter moist and cooks it gently through, so the bread sets without drying out. Cutting the time short can leave the center dense and underbaked.

“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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