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Steamed Brown Bread

A steamed bread made from rye and Indian meal with sour milk, molasses, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Steamed 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.

Prepare the batter

  1. Mix the rye meal, Indian meal, sour milk, molasses, and salt in a bowl.

  2. Dissolve the saleratus in a little boiling water and add it to the mixture, stirring well.

  3. Grease a tin pudding pan or a pail with a close lid.

  4. Pour the mixture into the pan, leaving room for it to swell.

Steam and finish

  1. Place the pan in a kettle of boiling water, ensuring the water does not boil over or evaporate completely.

  2. Cook for at least 4 hours.

  3. Remove the lid and place the bread in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for a few minutes to dry the top.

  4. Serve warm, optionally with a sauce made from thick sour cream, sugar, and nutmeg.

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. Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the saleratus so the bread rises and turns tender.
Saleratus (baking soda)
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that leavens the bread.
Indian meal
Provides the main starchy structure of the bread.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture to the bread.
Rye meal
Adds body and a hearty flavour while contributing to the crumb's structure.

The step that matters

Keeping the steaming water boiling and topped up. If the water boils dry or drops too low, the pan heats unevenly and the bread can turn out dense or undercooked. Steady gentle boiling keeps the steam consistent for the full cooking time.

“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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