Name: Boston Brown Bread
Ingredients: 2 ¼ cups cornmeal; 2 ¼ cups wheat flour; 1 ½ cups graham flour; ¾ cup molasses; 1 ½ cups sour milk; 2 ¼ cups sweet milk; 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda; 1 ½ teaspoons salt

Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Boston Brown Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

In a large bowl, combine cornmeal, wheat flour, graham flour, molasses, sour milk, sweet milk, baking soda, and salt, and mix until well combined.
Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan.

Steam

Steam the bread for 5 to 6 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.

Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,418 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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

Cornmeal: Gives the bread its coarse, hearty texture and golden colour.
Wheat flour: Provides the main structure that holds the loaf together.
Graham flour: Adds a nutty flavour and a denser, more textured crumb.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture to the batter.
Sour milk: Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to lift the loaf.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to make the bread rise.

The step that matters

Steam the bread for 5 to 6 hours. Steaming cooks the loaf gently with moist heat, so it sets without drying out. The pan must stay sealed and the water must keep simmering, or the bread can turn out dry or underbaked in the centre.

“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.

More boston brown bread recipes

Ice Cream 3 See all 349 →

Wheat Bread65 recipes

Whole Wheat Bread55 recipes

Barley Wheat Bread6 recipes

Cornbread345 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Boston Brown Bread