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Bread

Boston Brown Bread

A steamed and baked bread made with graham flour, cornmeal, molasses, and sour milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk 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

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.

Mix the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine graham flour, cornmeal, salt, and baking soda mixture.

  2. Stir in molasses until well combined.

  3. Pour the batter into two greased loaf pans.

Steam and bake

  1. Steam the loaves for three hours.

  2. After steaming, bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 20 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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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. Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

Graham flour
Provides the bulk and the coarse, hearty structure of the loaf.
Cornmeal
Adds body and a grainy texture that helps the loaf hold its crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk to produce gas, so the loaf rises and lightens.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds moisture to the batter.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture, and gives the bread its characteristic flavor.

The step that matters

Steaming the loaves. Steam keeps the batter moist while it sets and leavens, so the loaf cooks through without drying. Steaming too briefly or letting the water run dry can leave the center dense or the loaf unevenly cooked.

“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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