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Steamed Brown Bread

A steamed bread made with white flour, graham flour, cornmeal, molasses, sour milk, and baking soda, optionally sweetened with sugar and raisins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix the white flour, graham flour, cornmeal, molasses, sugar, salt, sour milk, and baking soda until well combined.

  2. If desired, fold in the raisins.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into molds.

  2. Steam the molds for 3 to 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 + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas, leavening the bread so it rises and lightens.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds tang while keeping the crumb moist.
White flour
Forms the main gluten structure that holds the bread together as it steams.
Graham flour
Adds coarse bran and nutty flavour and a denser, more textured crumb.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture, and keeps the bread soft.
Cornmeal
Contributes a grainy texture and body to the crumb.

The step that matters

Steam the molds for 3 to 4 hours. Steaming must stay gentle and steady so the bread cooks through without drying out. Letting the water boil dry or the molds sit uncovered can leave the bread dry or unevenly set. Because the leavening starts as soon as the batter is mixed, the batter should go into the molds and into steam promptly.

“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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