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Bread

Boston Brown Bread

A steamed and baked bread made with Indian meal, graham flour, wheat flour, sweet milk, molasses, and leavening.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Boston 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.

Make the batter

  1. Combine Indian meal, graham flour, wheat flour, sweet milk, salt, molasses, cream of tartar, and baking soda or baking powder in a large bowl. Mix until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into covered baking powder cans, filling them half full.

Steam and dry

  1. Steam the cans for 4 hours, ensuring the water remains boiling throughout.

  2. Remove from steam, take off the lids, and dry in a 350°F (175°C) oven for a few 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. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

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

Indian meal
Cornmeal provides the main structure and the characteristic coarse, hearty crumb.
Graham flour
Adds a nutty flavour and a denser, more rustic texture to the bread.
Wheat flour
Supplies gluten-forming protein that gives the loaf body and holds its shape.
Sweet milk
Provides the liquid that hydrates the flours and makes a moist batter.
New orleans molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour and a deep flavour, and contributes moisture.
Cream of tartar
Acidic component that reacts with the baking soda to produce carbon dioxide for lift.

The step that matters

Keeping the water boiling throughout steaming. Steam is what cooks and sets this batter. If the water stops boiling, the temperature drops and the loaf turns heavy and gummy inside, so the pot must be topped up and kept at a steady boil.

“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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