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Boston Brown Bread

A rye and cornmeal bread sweetened with molasses, baked at 350°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Rye and corn work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 182 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Boston Brown Bread

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Mix the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine rye meal and corn meal.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix molasses with baking soda and salt.

  3. Add the molasses mixture to the dry ingredients.

  4. Gradually mix in boiling water until the batter is soft.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) until cooked through.

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 + corntop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together182 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Rye + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Corn + molassestop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together644 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

Rye meal
Gives the bread its dense, hearty structure and distinctive flavor.
Corn meal
Provides bulk and a coarse, crumbly texture that holds the loaf together.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and the dark brown color.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Boiling water
Hydrates the meals and softens the batter so it can be poured.

The step that matters

Gradually mix in boiling water until the batter is soft. Cornmeal and rye absorb water at different rates. Adding the boiling water a little at a time prevents dry pockets and lumps, and lets you stop once the batter reaches a soft, pourable consistency.

“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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