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Bread

Pennsylvania Brown Bread

A steamed and baked bread made with graham flour, cornmeal, molasses, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,165 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Pennsylvania 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.

Prepare

  1. Mix Graham flour, cornmeal, salt, and baking powder in a bowl.

  2. Dissolve baking soda in boiling water and mix with molasses.

  3. Add cold water and molasses mixture to the dry ingredients.

  4. Beat the mixture for 1 minute.

  5. Pour into 2 well-greased molds.

Steam and dry

  1. Steam or boil for 4 hours.

  2. Dry off in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 10 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 + corntop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 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. Corn + molassestop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together644 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 whole-grain body that gives the bread its structure.
Indian corn meal
Adds coarse texture and helps the loaf hold a crumbly, sturdy structure.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture, and reacts with baking soda to help the loaf rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that leavens the bread.
Royal baking powder
Provides additional leavening so the batter rises during steaming.

The step that matters

Dissolve baking soda in boiling water before mixing with molasses. Baking soda must be fully dissolved and mixed with the acidic molasses so the gas forms evenly through the batter. Uneven mixing can leave dense pockets or bitter spots in the finished loaf.

“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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