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Bread

Steamed Brown Bread

A steamed loaf made from wholemeal flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, buttermilk, almond milk, maple syrup, and raisins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Steamed Brown Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the whole meal flour, white cornmeal, baking powder, and salt thoroughly.

  2. Add the buttermilk, almond milk, maple syrup, and raisins; beat well to combine.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a buttered double boiler.

Steam and brown

  1. Steam for 4 hours.

  2. After steaming, brown the bread in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for a few minutes.

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 + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Almond + raisintop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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

Whole meal flour
Provides the bulk and structure of the loaf, with a hearty, coarse texture.
White indian cornmeal
Adds body and a grainy texture to the crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter to lift and lighten the bread.
Sweet buttermilk or sweet milk
Hydrates the flour and cornmeal, supplying moisture for a tender crumb.
Pure maple syrup or treacle
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the crust brown.
Seedless raisins
Adds pockets of sweetness and chewy texture throughout the bread.

The step that matters

Steaming for 4 hours. Steaming keeps the batter moist and cooks it gently without a dry crust forming. The water in the double boiler must be kept topped up so the bread cooks evenly for the full time.

“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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