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Bread

Steamed Brown Bread

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and flour 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 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Mix the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine sour milk and molasses.

  2. Stir in cornmeal, graham flour, salt, and baking soda until well mixed.

  3. Pour the mixture into a covered pot or pan.

Steam and brown

  1. Steam or boil for 3 hours.

  2. After steaming, brown the bread in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for a few 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.

  1. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Molasses + flourtop 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).

Milk and flour 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

Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to produce gas, helping the bread rise.
Cornmeal
Provides the main structure and a coarse, hearty texture.
Graham flour
Adds gluten-forming protein and a nutty, wholesome flavor and texture.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and moisture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to leaven the batter.

The step that matters

Keeping the pot covered during steaming. Steam must stay trapped around the batter so the bread cooks through evenly and stays moist. Lifting the lid lets steam escape, lowering the temperature and risking a dense, under-cooked loaf.

“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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