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Bread

Rhode Island Brown Bread

A dense bread made with cornmeal, rye flour, molasses, and milk, baked for three hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Rhode Island Brown Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, combine cornmeal, rye flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.

  3. In another bowl, mix the egg, molasses, and milk.

  4. Combine the wet and dry ingredients until well mixed.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a covered dish, either earthen or iron.

  2. Bake for 3 hours.

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 + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Cornmeal
Forms the bulk of the batter and gives the bread its coarse, hearty structure.
Rye flour
Adds body and a deeper flavour while contributing some structure alongside the cornmeal.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps hold the crumb together as it sets.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour, and moisture, and contributes to browning during the long bake.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter so it reacts with baking soda to produce gas for rising.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar and molasses to produce carbon dioxide, lifting the bread.

The step that matters

Covering the dish during the long bake. A long, covered bake traps steam and keeps the moist batter from drying out or crusting too hard before the cornmeal and rye set through. Keeping the lid on helps the bread cook evenly and stay moist.

“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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