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Bread

Boston Brown Bread

A boiled and baked bread made with cornmeal, whole wheat flour, molasses, and yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,373 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Boston Brown Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Scald the cornmeal with the hot water.

  2. Mix in the whole wheat flour, molasses, and salt.

  3. Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water and add it to the mixture.

  4. Dissolve the baking soda in the lukewarm water and add it to the batter.

Fill and rise

  1. Pour the batter into greased molds, filling each a little over half.

  2. Let the molds rise until nearly full.

Steam and bake

  1. Place the molds in a pot of boiling water, ensuring the water reaches two-thirds up the sides.

  2. Boil for three hours, adding more boiling water as needed.

  3. After boiling, bake the molds for half an hour.

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. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Wheat + molassestop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together702 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

Cornmeal
Forms the bulk of the crumb and gives the bread its characteristic grainy texture.
Whole wheat flour
Adds structure and body to the batter, holding the loaf together.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture, with a deep flavor.
Compressed yeast
Ferments the batter, producing gas that lets the loaf rise and become lighter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidity in the batter to produce gas, adding lift.

The step that matters

Filling and rising the molds. Fill the molds only a little over half so the batter has room to rise without overflowing. Let it rise until nearly full, since yeast and baking soda keep expanding the loaf during steaming.

“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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