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Bread

Boston Brown Bread

A steamed and baked loaf made with Indian meal, Graham flour, rye flour, milk, molasses, egg, baking soda, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and rye 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 ↓

Boston Brown Bread

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. In a large bowl, combine Indian meal, Graham flour, rye flour, sour milk, sweet milk, molasses, egg, baking soda, and salt. Mix until well combined.

  2. If desired, fold in currants.

  3. Pour the mixture into a greased loaf pan.

Steam and bake

  1. Steam for 4 hours.

  2. After steaming, place in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 15 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 + ryetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,320 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Rye + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together918 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Indian meal
Provides the coarse, grainy structure that gives the bread its body.
Graham flour
Adds a nutty flavor and a hearty, slightly dense crumb.
Rye flour
Adds earthy flavor and contributes to the bread's dense texture.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to produce rising and a tender crumb.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to leaven the batter.

The step that matters

Steam for the full time. Steaming keeps the moist, dense batter from drying out and lets the leavening work slowly, so the loaf sets evenly without a crumbly or gummy center.

Swap the currant

The recipe marks currant as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, rye, milk, molasses, egg):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, rye, milk, molasses, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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