Name: Steamed Brown Bread
Ingredients: 1 pint whole-wheat flour; 1 pint southern white cornmeal; 1 teaspoon baking powder; 1 teaspoon salt; ½ pint buttermilk or whole milk; ½ pint almond milk; 1 cup pure maple syrup or sorghum; 1 cup seedless raisins

Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Steamed Brown Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

In a bowl, mix the whole-wheat flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt thoroughly.
Add the buttermilk, almond milk, maple syrup, and raisins, then beat well to combine.
Pour the mixture into a buttered double boiler.

Steam and brown

Steam for 4 hours.
After steaming, transfer to a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) to brown.

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.

Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Almond + raisintop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,781 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,673 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,418 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Wheat + almondtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together264 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Whole-wheat flour: Provides the main structure and body of the bread.
Cornmeal: Adds a coarse, crumbly texture and a characteristic grainy structure.
Baking powder: Releases gas to lift the batter so it rises and becomes lighter.
Buttermilk or whole milk: Adds moisture and liquid that hydrates the flour and cornmeal.
Maple syrup or sorghum: Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the crust brown.

The step that matters

Transfer to the hot oven to brown. Steaming sets the bread through moist heat and leaves the surface pale. A short time in a hot oven dries the outside and browns it through dry heat, so the crust develops color and flavor rather than staying soft.

“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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Steamed Brown Bread