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Bread

Oatmeal Brown Bread

A dense bread made with rolled oats, molasses, cornmeal, sour milk, flour, and baking soda, steamed for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Oats and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,119 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓

Oatmeal Brown Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cover rolled oats with boiling water and let stand for 15 minutes.

Mix and steam

  1. Add the remaining ingredients in the order given, dissolving the baking soda in the sour milk.

  2. Mix well and 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. Oats + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,119 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  2. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Oats + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. 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

Rolled oats
Soaked in boiling water to soften, adding moisture and a hearty texture to the loaf.
Cornmeal
Gives the bread its coarse, grainy texture and body.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the steamed loaf together.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce carbon dioxide, which lightens the loaf.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds tang and moisture.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture to the bread.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in the sour milk. Baking soda needs an acid to react and release carbon dioxide. Dissolving it fully in the sour milk spreads the reaction evenly, so the loaf rises uniformly rather than developing pockets or dense patches.

“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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