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Raised Brown Bread

A steamed raised bread made with Indian meal, rye, graham, molasses, and yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Raised Brown Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Sift the rye and graham meals together with the salt and Indian meal.

  2. Add the baking soda and flour.

  3. Sift the baking soda twice with the flour.

  4. Mix all dry ingredients together.

  5. Stir in the molasses.

  6. Gradually add the lukewarm milk and mix well.

  7. Add the yeast.

  8. Stir thoroughly for five to six minutes.

Steam the loaf

  1. Grease the tin well.

  2. Cover the tin.

  3. Place the tin in a steamer with lukewarm water.

  4. Do not boil the water for the first twenty-five minutes.

  5. After twenty-five minutes, boil hard for four and a half 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. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Molasses + flourtop 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).

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

Indian meal
Forms the coarse, crumbly body that gives the loaf its structure.
Rye meal
Adds a dense, hearty texture and a deeper, earthy flavour.
Graham meal
Adds a coarse texture and a nutty flavour to the crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to release gas and lighten the batter.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and a dark colour to the loaf.
Yeast
Ferments the batter so it rises and becomes lighter.

The step that matters

Keep the water off the boil for the first 25 minutes. Gentle steam lets the yeast start raising the batter before the heat becomes fierce. Boiling too early can disturb the rise and leave a heavy, uneven 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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