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Steamed Brown Bread

A steamed bread made from cornmeal, flour, sweet and sour milk, molasses, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Steamed Brown Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Dissolve the baking soda in hot water.

  2. Pour half of the dissolved soda into the sour milk and the other half into the molasses.

  3. In a large bowl, combine the cornmeal, flour, sweet milk, sour milk mixture, and molasses mixture.

Steam and bake

  1. Steam the mixture for 3 hours.

  2. After steaming, bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes, just until the top is browned.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

Yellow cornmeal
Forms the bulk of the crumb and gives the cornbread its characteristic flavor and body.
All-purpose flour
Adds gluten-forming structure so the steamed loaf holds together.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to produce gas that lightens the batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to leaven the batter.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color and sweetness, and its acidity helps activate the baking soda.
Sweet milk
Provides liquid that hydrates the cornmeal and flour and adds richness.

The step that matters

Splitting the baking soda between the sour milk and molasses. Baking soda only leavens when it meets an acid. Dividing it between the sour milk and molasses lets each acidic liquid react promptly, so the batter rises evenly during steaming.

“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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