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Bread

Raised Brown Bread

A yeast‑raised bread made from cornmeal, rye meal, molasses, and yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Corn and rye work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 182 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Raised Brown Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. In a bowl, scald the cornmeal with boiling water until just wet.

  2. Let it stand for ten minutes, then add enough cold water to make a soft batter.

  3. When lukewarm, add the yeast, molasses, salt, baking soda, and rye meal.

  4. Beat well and let rise overnight or until it cracks open.

Rise and bake

  1. Stir it down and place in a greased and floured tin to rise again.

  2. Sprinkle flour over the top.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for two 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. Corn + ryetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together182 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Molasses + ryetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Corn + molassestop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together644 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

Yellow corn meal
Forms the bulk of the bread and gives it its corn flavour and crumb.
Rye meal
Adds body and a deeper, earthy flavour to the crumb.
Yeast
Produces gas during the long rise, leavening the batter so it becomes light.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and dark colour, and feeds the yeast.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses' acidity to add additional lift and a tender texture.

The step that matters

Overnight rise. The batter must rise long enough for the yeast to build gas and structure. Under-rising leaves a dense loaf, while the rise is judged by the batter cracking open.

“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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