Name: Steamed Brown Bread
Ingredients: 1 cup white flour; 2 cups Graham flour; 2 cups cornmeal (Indian meal); 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 cup molasses; 3½ cups milk; ¼ teaspoon salt

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

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the batter

In a large bowl, combine white flour, Graham flour, cornmeal, baking soda, molasses, milk, and salt.
Beat the mixture well until smooth.
If using sweet milk, substitute baking powder for baking soda.

Steam

Pour the batter into a mold and steam for 4 hours.

Bake and serve

After steaming, place the bread in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 15 minutes.
Serve warm with butter.

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.

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

Graham flour: Provides the bulk and the coarse, hearty structure of the bread.
Cornmeal: Adds a grainy texture and body to the crumb.
Baking soda: Reacts with the molasses to produce gas, helping the bread rise.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deep brown color.
Milk: Hydrates the flours and makes the batter pourable.
White flour: Lightens the texture and adds gluten for a softer crumb.

The step that matters

Substituting baking powder for baking soda with sweet milk. Baking soda needs an acid, such as the acid in molasses, to release gas and raise the bread. Sweet milk lacks that acid, so baking powder, which carries its own acid, is needed to leaven the batter.

“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