Name: Boston Brown Bread, No. 3
Ingredients: 2 cups graham flour; 1 cup wheat flour; ½ cup sour cream; 1 teaspoon baking soda; ½ cup molasses; coarse sea salt to taste; buttermilk to make a thick batter

Why it works: Flour and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Boston Brown Bread, No. 3

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).

Mix the batter

In a bowl, mix the graham flour, wheat flour, sour cream, baking soda, molasses, and coarse sea salt.
Add buttermilk gradually until you achieve a thick batter.
Pour the batter into a baking dish.

Bake

Bake for 3 hours using both radiators in the Caloric oven.

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.

Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,721 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Cream + buttermilktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together674 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Molasses + buttermilktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together526 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,429 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Graham flour: Provides the coarse, hearty body and nutty flavor that define the bread.
Wheat flour: Adds structure and helps the loaf hold its shape as it bakes.
Sour cream: Adds moisture and tenderness, and its acidity reacts with the baking soda.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic sour cream and molasses to lift the batter as it bakes.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, moisture, and the dark color and deep flavor of the bread.
Buttermilk: Brings the batter to a thick consistency and adds moisture and acidity.

The step that matters

Add buttermilk gradually until you achieve a thick batter. Batter consistency controls the final texture. Adding too much liquid at once makes the batter loose, which weakens its structure and can leave the bread dense or gummy. Adding it slowly lets you stop at a thick batter.

“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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Boston Brown Bread, No. 3