Name: Mothers Brown Bread
Ingredients: 3 pints cornmeal; 2 pints rye meal; 1 cup New Orleans molasses; 2 cups sour milk; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 quart warm water; 1 teaspoon salt

Why it works: Rye and milk work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 918 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Mothers Brown Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Mix and bake

In a large bowl, mix together the cornmeal, rye meal, molasses, sour milk, baking soda, warm water, and salt until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased baking pan.
Bake for 3 to 4 hours, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

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.

Rye + milktop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together918 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Rye + molassestop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together804 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Molasses + milktop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,243 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Cornmeal: Forms the bulk of the loaf and gives it a coarse, crumbly structure.
Rye meal: Adds earthy flavour and helps give the loaf a denser texture.
New orleans molasses: Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture to the batter.
Sour milk: Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to help the bread rise.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to produce gas that lifts the batter.

The step that matters

Baking for the full time. A dense, moist loaf like this can look browned on top while the centre is still wet. Testing the middle with a toothpick until it comes out clean shows the bread is fully set.

“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.

Cornbread345 recipes

Bread Pudding336 recipes

Milk Bread Rolls242 recipes

Potato Bread124 recipes

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Mothers Brown Bread