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Bread

Boston Brown Bread

A dense, sweet rye and cornmeal bread baked slowly with molasses or brown sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Rye and corn work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 182 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Boston Brown Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Mix the batter

  1. Mix the rye flour, cornmeal, all-purpose flour, molasses or brown sugar, and salt thoroughly.

  2. Wet the mixture with sour milk until it forms a thick batter.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in a tablespoon of water and add it to the batter.

  4. Stir the batter until it is as thick as can be stirred with a spoon.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into well-greased pans.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 3 to 4 hours.

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 + corntop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together182 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Rye + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,320 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

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

  5. Flour + corntop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rye flour
Adds a dense, hearty structure and a distinct earthy flavor.
Cornmeal (in the method)
Gives the bread its coarse texture and body without much gluten.
All-purpose flour
Provides gluten for structure so the loaf holds together.
Molasses or brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture, and browning, and deepens the color.
Sour milk
Moistens the flours and reacts with the baking soda to lift the loaf.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that leavens the bread.

The step that matters

Stir the batter until it is as thick as can be stirred with a spoon. The batter must be stiff enough to hold its shape during the long steam-like bake. Too much liquid makes the loaf gummy and collapsed, while the leavening needs enough body to trap the gas released by the baking soda.

“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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