Skip to main content
Bread

Steamed Boston Brown Bread

A steamed rye and cornmeal bread sweetened with molasses or sugar, flavored with sour milk and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Steamed Boston Brown Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine rye flour, cornmeal, molasses (or sugar), and salt.

  2. Mix thoroughly and add sour milk until well combined.

  3. Dissolve baking soda in water and add to the mixture.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the batter into a greased steaming mold.

  2. Steam for about 2 hours until cooked through.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + molassestop 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).

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

Rye flour
Provides the dark, dense structure and earthy flavor typical of this bread.
Cornmeal
Adds a coarse, crumbly texture and body to the batter.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deep brown color to the bread.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda so the bread rises and softens.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that lifts the batter.

The step that matters

Dissolving and adding the baking soda. Baking soda must be fully dissolved and mixed in evenly so it reacts with the sour milk throughout the batter. Uneven mixing leaves dense pockets or patches that fail to rise.

“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

CornbreadCornbread345 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding336 recipesMilk Bread RollsMilk Bread Rolls242 recipesPotato BreadPotato Bread124 recipes