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Rhode Island Brown Bread

A dense bread made with cornmeal, rye meal, molasses, and milk, baked for three hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Rhode Island Brown Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

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

  2. In a large bowl, combine cornmeal, rye meal, and salt.

  3. In another bowl, beat the egg and mix in molasses and milk.

  4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well.

  5. Stir in cream of tartar and baking soda until fully combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a covered dish, either earthen or iron.

  2. Bake 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.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Molasses + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,408 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

Cornmeal
Forms the main body of the bread and gives it its coarse, grainy texture.
Rye meal
Adds a denser crumb and a deeper, earthy flavour than cornmeal alone.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps give the loaf structure as it sets.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture, and contributes to browning during baking.
Cream of tartar
Acidic component that reacts with baking soda to produce gas for rising.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to leaven the batter and lighten the crumb.

The step that matters

Stir in cream of tartar and baking soda until fully combined. Baking soda and cream of tartar release carbon dioxide once wet and mixed, so the batter should be combined thoroughly and baked promptly. Uneven mixing leaves pockets of baking soda that taste bitter and cause uneven rising.

“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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