Why it works: Milk and rye 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
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Sift the cornmeal, rye meal, and graham meal together several times.
Mix and steam
Add the molasses, salt, sweet milk, sour milk, and baking soda; beat thoroughly.
Pour the mixture into a tin form.
Place the form in a kettle of hot water and boil for four hours.
Dry and finish
Remove the lid and set the bread in the open oven to dry the top.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Milk + ryetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together918 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Molasses + ryetop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together804 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Molasses + milktop 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
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the sour milk to produce gas, helping the bread rise and lighten.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture to the bread.
- Cornmeal
- Provides the coarse body and structure of the loaf.
- Rye meal
- Adds earthy flavour and a dense, moist crumb.
- Graham meal
- Contributes a nutty, wholesome texture and structure.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with the baking soda, driving the rise.
The step that matters
Boiling the bread in hot water. The tin must stay submerged in steadily simmering water for the full four hours. Water that boils dry or drops too low lets the loaf set unevenly, so the bread cooks gently by steam and stays moist.
“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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