Name: Steamed Boston Bread
Ingredients: 2 cups brown flour; 1 cup white flour; 1 cup cornmeal; 1 quart sweet or sour milk; 2 teaspoons cream of tartar (if using sweet milk); 1 teaspoon baking soda

Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Steamed Boston Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the batter

In a large bowl, combine brown flour, white flour, cornmeal, and baking soda.
If using sweet milk, add cream of tartar to the mixture.
Pour in the milk and mix until well combined.

Steam

Transfer the batter to a greased steaming dish.
Steam for 3 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.

Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together29,399 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,481 recipes

Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, 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

Brown flour: Provides the main structure and a hearty, slightly nutty flavor.
White flour: Adds gluten-based structure so the loaf holds together and stays tender.
Cornmeal: Adds a coarser, crumbly texture and a grainy sweetness.
Milk: Hydrates the flour and cornmeal and supplies the liquid that makes the batter pourable.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acid in sour milk or cream of tartar to produce gas that lifts the bread.
Cream of tartar: Supplies acid for sweet milk, allowing the baking soda to react and raise the bread.

The step that matters

Adding cream of tartar when using sweet milk. Baking soda only produces rising gas when an acid is present. Sweet milk has little acidity, so the cream of tartar must be mixed in to supply it. Without it, the bread will be dense and flat.

“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

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Steamed Boston Bread