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Steamed Brown Bread

A steamed bread made with flour, sour milk, molasses, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Steamed Brown Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Mix and sift the dry ingredients together.

  2. Combine the thick sour milk and molasses in a separate bowl.

  3. Add the milk mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well.

Steam and finish

  1. Pour the batter into a greased mold and cover tightly.

  2. Steam for 3 hours.

  3. After steaming, dry the bread in the oven for a few moments before removing it from the mold.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Milk + molassestop 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

White flour
Provides the main structure once the batter sets during steaming.
Graham flour
Adds coarser texture and a more robust, nutty flavour to the loaf.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda so the bread rises and turns tender.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to release gas, leavening the batter.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and a dark colour to the bread.

The step that matters

Keep the mold tightly covered while steaming. A loose lid lets steam escape and water condenses unevenly, leaving the bread soggy or dry. A tight seal keeps the steam steady so the leavening gas can expand and set the crumb evenly.

“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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