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Bread

Boston Brown Bread

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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

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 the batter

  1. Mix the rye flour and cornmeal together in a bowl.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in 2 tablespoons of boiling water.

  3. Add the dissolved baking soda and molasses to the sour milk and mix well.

  4. Pour the mixture into the flour mixture and add the salt; stir until combined.

  5. Pour the batter into a well-greased 2-quart bread mold.

Steam and bake

  1. Cover with a lid and steam for 5 hours.

  2. Remove the lid and bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 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. 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 flour
Provides the dense, hearty structure and earthy flavour typical of this bread.
Cornmeal
Adds coarse texture and body, giving the loaf its characteristic crumb.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture to the batter.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to produce gas that helps the bread rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to release carbon dioxide, leavening the batter.

The step that matters

Steaming the covered mold. The batter is leavened by the acid and baking soda reaction, and steaming keeps the loaf moist while it sets. Steam must be kept steady so the bread cooks through without drying or collapsing.

“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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