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Bread

Boston Brown Bread

A steamed and optionally baked bread made with cornmeal, rye meal, white flour, molasses, milk, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Rye and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,320 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Boston Brown Bread

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Mix the dough

  1. Sift together the cornmeal, rye meal, flour, and salt.

  2. Add the molasses, milk, and baking soda (dissolved in a little hot water).

  3. Mix in enough water to form a stiff dough.

Steam and finish

  1. Fill a tin about three-quarters full and secure the cover tightly.

  2. Place the tin in a closed kettle with boiling water to nearly cover it.

  3. Steam for 4 hours.

  4. For a firm crust, place the bread in a 400°F (200°C) oven for a short time after steaming.

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. Rye + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,320 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Rye + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together918 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Rye + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, 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

Yellow cornmeal
Provides the bulk and coarse, crumbly texture of the loaf.
Rye meal
Adds a dense, moist crumb and a distinctive earthy flavour.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses and milk to lift the dense batter as it steams.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour, and moisture to the bread.
Milk
Moistens the dough and helps it hold together as it steams.

The step that matters

Steaming with a tightly sealed tin. If the cover is loose or the kettle water runs low, steam escapes and the bread dries out or turns heavy. Steady boiling water keeps the moisture constant during the long steam, so the loaf stays moist and cooks through evenly.

“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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