Why it works: Rye and milk work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 918 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓
Brown Bread, No. 2
Ingredients
Directions
Mix the batter
Combine the rye meal, cornmeal, sour milk, salt, molasses, and dissolved baking soda in a large bowl, then mix until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased tin pail.
Steam
Set the pail in a kettle of boiling water and steam for 3.5 hours.
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.
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Rye + milktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together918 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Rye + molassestop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together804 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,243 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rye meal
- Provides the bread's structure and its dark, earthy flavor.
- Cornmeal
- Adds a coarse, crumbly texture and body to the loaf.
- Sour milk
- Supplies moisture and acid that reacts with the baking soda to lift the bread.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the sour milk's acid to produce gas that leavens the batter.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deep brown color.
The step that matters
Keep the kettle at a steady boil for the full 3.5 hours. Steam gives gentle, even heat that sets the crumb. If the water stops boiling and the heat drops, the bread can turn dense and gummy in the middle.
“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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