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Bread

Boston Brown Bread

A dense, molasses‑sweetened bread baked in a one‑pound can.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Rye and milk work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 918 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Boston 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.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Grease one-pound baking powder cans.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine Indian meal, rye or graham flour, molasses, baking soda, and salt.

  2. Add enough sour milk to create a soft batter.

  3. Fill them half full with the mixture.

Bake

  1. Bake for 1 hour and 45 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. Rye + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together918 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  2. Rye + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Indian meal
Provides the coarse cornmeal body that gives the bread its structure and crumb.
Rye or graham flour
Adds gluten-light bulk and a nutty, hearty flavor to the batter.
New orleans molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweetness that contributes to browning.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Sour milk
Supplies moisture and acidity that activates the baking soda for rising.

The step that matters

Fill the cans only half full. The batter rises substantially during steaming and baking, so filling past halfway can cause it to overflow or bake dense and uneven.

“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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