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 ↓
Steamed 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.
Make the batter
Mix cornmeal, rye flour, sour milk, and sugar in a warm place to form a batter that pours easily.
Let the batter sit for three hours.
Stir in the dissolved baking soda and beat well.
Steam
Pour the batter into an oiled pan and cover the pan.
Place the pan in a steamer and keep the water boiling.
Steam for four hours.
Brown and serve
Brown the bread in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 10 to 15 minutes before serving.
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 + flourtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,320 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Rye + milktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together918 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Coarse cornmeal
- Provides the bulk and the coarse, crumbly texture of the loaf.
- Rye flour
- Adds gluten-light structure and a darker, earthy flavour to the bread.
- Sour milk or buttermilk
- Supplies moisture and acidity that reacts with the baking soda.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to produce gas that lifts the batter.
The step that matters
Keep the water boiling during steaming. Steam is what cooks the batter through. If the water drops and the steam weakens, the loaf can turn out dense and underdone 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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