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 ↓
Brown Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a large bowl, combine sour milk, molasses, baking soda, cornmeal, rye flour, all-purpose flour, and salt. Mix until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased steaming dish.
Steam
Steam for four hours or longer until cooked through.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Rye + flourtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,320 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + ryetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together918 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Molasses + ryetop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together804 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Milk and flour 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
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to produce gas that lightens the bread.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to release carbon dioxide, giving the bread its rise.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture to the loaf.
- Cornmeal
- Provides the coarse, crumbly body and structure of the bread.
- Rye flour
- Adds flavour and a denser, moist crumb with some structure.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides gluten-based structure that holds the loaf together.
The step that matters
Steam for four hours or longer until cooked through. Steaming gently sets the batter with moist heat, and the long time lets the dense cornmeal and rye mixture cook through without drying out. Stopping early leaves a gummy, undercooked centre.
“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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