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Bread

Boston Brown Bread

A steamed bread made with cornmeal, graham flour, all-purpose flour, molasses, egg, sour milk, baking soda, and optional salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk 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 ↓

Boston Brown Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scald the cornmeal in a pot.

  2. Add the graham flour and all-purpose flour to the cornmeal.

  3. Mix in the molasses, beaten egg, and sour milk.

  4. Stir in the baking soda and salt (if using).

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased mold.

  2. Steam for 4 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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  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

Cornmeal
Gives the bread its coarse, grainy texture and sturdy crumb.
All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure so the loaf holds its shape.
Graham flour
Adds a nutty flavor and a denser, heartier crumb.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and moisture to the bread.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk to produce gas that lightens the loaf.
Sour milk
Supplies acidity to activate the baking soda and adds moisture.

The step that matters

Stir in the baking soda and salt (if using). Baking soda needs an acid, such as the sour milk, to release gas. Once mixed, the batter should be shaped and steamed promptly so the rise is not lost.

“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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