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Bread

Boston Brown Bread

Boston Brown Bread is a loaf made with cornmeal, all-purpose flour, rye flour, graham flour, molasses, baking soda, cold coffee, sweet milk, and sour milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and rye match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,320 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, mix together the cornmeal, all-purpose flour, rye flour, and graham flour.

  3. In another bowl, combine the molasses, baking soda, cold coffee, sweet milk, and sour milk.

Make and bake the bread

  1. Gradually add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stirring until well combined.

  2. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan.

  3. Bake for about 1 hour 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.

  1. Flour + ryetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,320 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Coffee + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  3. Rye + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together918 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and the dark color characteristic of this bread.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas, helping the loaf rise.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds a tangy flavor and tender crumb.
Cornmeal
Gives the loaf a coarse, slightly crumbly texture and sturdy structure.
All-purpose flour
Provides gluten structure so the loaf holds its shape.

The step that matters

Combining wet and dry ingredients. Stir only until the batter is well combined. Overmixing develops gluten, which can make the loaf dense and tough, while the baking soda reaction begins as soon as the liquids meet.

“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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