Name: Mrs. Moulton's New England Brown Bread
Ingredients: 4 cups Indian meal; 2 cups rye meal; 1 quart milk (skimmed if perfectly sweet); 1 cup molasses; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 2 teaspoons coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')

Why it works: Rye and milk 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 ↓

Mrs. Moulton's New England Brown Bread

Ingredients

4 cups Indian meal
2 cups rye meal
1 quart milk (skimmed if perfectly sweet)
1 cup molasses
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')

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

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Mix and bake

In a large bowl, combine the Indian meal, rye meal, milk, molasses, baking soda, and salt.
Stir the mixture until well combined.
Pour the batter into a greased baking dish.
Bake without allowing it to rise until cooked through.

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.

Rye + milktop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together918 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Rye + molassestop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together804 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked 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

Indian meal: Cornmeal forms the bulk of the bread and gives it its structure and coarse texture.
Rye meal: Adds a mild, earthy flavour and a denser crumb than wheat flour would.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture to the bread.
Baking soda: Reacts with the molasses's acidity to produce gas that leavens the batter.
Milk: Hydrates the meals and supplies moisture for a tender, cohesive crumb.

The step that matters

Bake without allowing it to rise. The batter is leavened by baking soda reacting with the molasses. If it is left to rise before baking, the gas escapes early and the loaf can turn out dense and heavy.

“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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Mrs. Moulton's New England Brown Bread