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Boston Brown Bread

A steamed bread made with Indian meal, rye flour, all-purpose flour, molasses, and milk, then baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Rye and flour 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 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Mix the Indian meal, rye flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.

  2. Stir in the molasses and fresh milk until well combined.

  3. Pour the mixture into a greased steaming mold.

Steam and dry

  1. Steam for 3 hours.

  2. Remove from the mold.

  3. Dry in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) 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. Rye + flourtop 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 + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Rye + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together804 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
Gives the bread its coarse, grainy texture and characteristic crumb.
Rye flour
Adds a dense structure and earthy flavor to the loaf.
All-purpose flour
Provides gluten structure so the loaf holds together after steaming.
Baking powder
Releases gas to lighten the batter and help it rise.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture to the bread.
Fresh milk
Hydrates the flours and binds the batter into a pourable mixture.

The step that matters

Steam for 3 hours. Steaming gently cooks the batter through with steady moisture, so the loaf sets without drying out. Letting the water boil down or stopping early can leave the center gummy or undercooked.

“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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