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Bread

Boston Brown Bread

A steamed rye and cornmeal bread flavored with molasses and sour milk.

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

Prepare

  1. Mix and sift the rye meal, cornmeal, Graham flour, salt, and baking soda.

  2. Stir in the molasses and sour milk until well mixed.

Steam

  1. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered mold, filling it two-thirds full.

  2. Fit on a buttered cover, tie it down with string, and place it on a trivet in a kettle of boiling water.

  3. Cover closely and steam for 3½ hours, adding more boiling water as needed.

  4. If using a baking powder can, steam for 2½ hours instead.

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

Rye meal
Adds a dense, hearty structure and a distinctive earthy flavour.
Cornmeal
Gives the bread a coarse, moist crumb and a sweet corn flavour.
Graham flour
Adds coarse texture and a nutty, wholesome flavour to the crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to lift and lighten the loaf.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour, and moisture while deepening the flavour.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and tenderises the batter.

The step that matters

Keeping the steam water boiling. Steaming cooks the bread gently and evenly only if the kettle stays at a steady boil. Water that drops too low lets the loaf cool and turn dense, so top up with boiling water, not cold.

“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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