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Boston Brown Bread

A steamed and lightly baked bread made with graham flour, molasses, lard, and sour milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Boston Brown Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Mix graham flour, molasses, cream of tartar, lard, and baking soda in a bowl.

  2. Add sour milk gradually until a stiff batter forms.

  3. Grease a mold well and pour the batter into it.

Steam and finish

  1. Steam the batter for 3 hours.

  2. After removing from the mold, bake the bread at 400°F (200°C) for 5 minutes to form a light crust.

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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Molasses + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,408 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

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

Graham flour
Forms the bulk of the bread and gives it its coarse, hearty structure.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and the bread's characteristic dark color and flavor.
Cream of tartar
Acidic component that reacts with baking soda to produce carbon dioxide for rising.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to release gas, leavening the bread.
Lard
Adds fat, which tenderizes the crumb and adds richness.
Sour milk
Supplies moisture and acidity to hydrate the flour and activate the leavening.

The step that matters

Steaming the batter. The batter must be fully sealed in a greased mold and steamed continuously so it sets moist and evenly risen; if the mold leaks or the water runs low, the bread can turn out dense or soggy.

“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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