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Bread

Boston Brown Bread

A dense, sweet bread made with rye flour, cornmeal, molasses, and baking soda.

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 ↓

Boston Brown Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix the rye flour, cornmeal, all-purpose flour, molasses (or sugar), and salt until well combined.

  2. Add enough sour milk to form a thick batter that can be stirred with a spoon.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in the tablespoon of water and add it to the batter, mixing well.

Rise and bake

  1. Pour the batter into well-greased bread pans.

  2. Let the batter rise for several hours or overnight until light.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 3 to 4 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 + 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
Adds a dense, earthy flavor and structure to the crumb.
Cornmeal
Gives the bread its coarse texture and characteristic golden color.
All-purpose flour
Provides gluten structure so the loaf holds its shape.
Molasses or brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture, and deep color to the bread.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to help the bread rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to produce gas that leavens the batter.

The step that matters

Letting the batter rise until light. Rising before baking lets the leavening gases expand and aerate the dense batter. Rising too briefly leaves a heavy, compact loaf, while the long rise and slow bake are what give this bread its moist, tender crumb.

“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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