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Bread

Boston Brown Bread

A dense bread made with Indian meal, rye meal, molasses, vinegar, salt, saleratus, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Rye and molasses work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 804 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Boston Brown Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine Indian meal, rye meal, molasses, vinegar, salt, saleratus, and lukewarm water. Mix until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.

Cook

  1. Boil or bake for 5 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. Rye + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Rye + vinegartop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together72 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  3. Molasses + vinegartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,253 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

Indian meal
Provides the main body and structure of the bread.
Rye meal
Adds earthy flavour and a dense, moist crumb.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture.
Saleratus
Reacts with the acid to leaven the bread and lighten the crumb.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that activates the saleratus for rising.

The step that matters

Combining the saleratus and vinegar. Saleratus is an alkaline leavener that releases gas when it meets an acid such as vinegar. Mixing the batter thoroughly spreads both evenly so the bread rises uniformly rather than in pockets.

“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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