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Steamed Brown Bread

A steamed loaf made from rye flour, cornmeal, molasses, buttermilk, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Rye and flour 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 ↓

Steamed Brown Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the batter

  1. Dissolve the baking soda in boiling water and add it to the buttermilk.

  2. In a large bowl, combine the rye flour, cornmeal, egg, molasses, and salt.

  3. Pour the buttermilk mixture into the dry ingredients and beat well.

Steam and bake

  1. If steaming in one loaf, steam for 3 hours.

  2. If steaming in one loaf, bake slowly for 30 minutes.

  3. If using two loaves, steam for 2 hours.

  4. If using two loaves, bake for 30 minutes.

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 + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,320 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Molasses + buttermilktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together526 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 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 egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Rye flour
Provides the earthy flavor and a dense, moist structure characteristic of brown bread.
Cornmeal
Adds a coarser texture and helps give the loaf its hearty crumb.
Buttermilk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda and adds moisture and tang.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to release gas, which lightens the loaf.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and the dark color of the bread.
Egg
Binds the ingredients together and adds structure to the batter.

The step that matters

Pour the buttermilk mixture into the dry ingredients and beat well. Baking soda starts reacting with the acid in buttermilk as soon as they meet, releasing gas that lifts the batter. Beating well distributes the soda evenly so the loaf rises uniformly, so the batter should go into the steamer 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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