Skip to main content
Bread

Boston Brown Bread

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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

  1. Dissolve the baking soda in hot water.

  2. Mix the dissolved soda with the cornmeal, flour, molasses, and sour milk, stirring thoroughly.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into well-greased round tins, filling them only two-thirds full.

  2. Steam for 2½ 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. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Molasses + milktop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Wheat + molassestop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together702 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the sour milk and molasses to produce gas, lightening the bread.
Sour milk
Supplies acidity that activates the baking soda and adds moisture and tenderness.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour, and moisture, and contributes to the bread's flavour.
Cornmeal
Provides the bulk and coarse, crumbly texture of the bread.
Graham or whole wheat flour
Adds structure and a nutty, wholesome flavour to the batter.

The step that matters

Filling the tins two-thirds full. The batter rises as the baking soda reacts and gas forms during steaming. Overfilling can cause the batter to spill over or bake unevenly, so leaving room for expansion matters.

“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 →

You might also like

Wheat BreadWheat Bread65 recipesWhole Wheat BreadWhole Wheat Bread55 recipesBarley Wheat BreadBarley Wheat Bread6 recipesCornbreadCornbread345 recipes