Name: Steamed Brown Bread
Ingredients: 2 cups cornmeal; 1 cup graham flour; 1 cup wheat flour; 1 cup molasses; 2 cups sour milk; 2 teaspoons baking soda; ¼ teaspoon salt

Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Steamed 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

Combine cornmeal, graham flour, wheat flour, molasses, sour milk, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Mix until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased steaming mold.

Steam and bake

Steam for 4 hours or until a toothpick comes out clean.
If using baking powder, steam for 1.5 hours.
After steaming, bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 15 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.

Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,418 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,429 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Molasses + milktop 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

Cornmeal: Provides the main body and corn flavor, giving the bread its characteristic crumb.
Graham flour: Adds coarse bran texture and a nutty, wholesome flavor to the batter.
Wheat flour: Supplies gluten to give the steamed loaf structure and a tender yet sturdy crumb.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture, and deepens the flavor.
Sour milk: Its acidity reacts with baking soda to produce gas that lightens the batter.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to release carbon dioxide, causing the bread to rise.

The step that matters

Steaming for the full time. Steaming gently sets the batter without browning. Under-steaming leaves the centre wet and dense, so the toothpick test should be checked before removing the mold.

“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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Steamed Brown Bread