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Bread

Boston Brown Bread

A sweet, molasses-flavored cornmeal bread baked in a steamer and oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Boston Brown Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Mix the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine sweet milk, sour milk, molasses, and salt.

  2. Add cornmeal and flour, mixing until well combined.

  3. Dissolve baking soda in hot water and mix thoroughly into the batter.

Steam and dry

  1. Pour the batter into large baking powder cans.

  2. Steam the cans for 3 hours.

  3. Dry the cans in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 5 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. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

Cornmeal
Forms the bulk of the bread and gives it its coarse, dense crumb.
Sour milk
Reacts with the baking soda to produce gas, helping the bread rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to leaven the batter without yeast.
Dark molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture to the bread.
White or graham flour
Adds body and helps bind the cornmeal so the loaf holds together.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in hot water. Baking soda must be fully dissolved and evenly mixed into the batter, otherwise pockets of soda cause uneven rising and patches of bitter flavour.

“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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