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Bread

Liberty Brown Bread

A steamed bread made with rye flour, cornmeal, rolled oats, raisins, molasses, and hot water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Liberty Brown Bread

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Mix the rye flour, cornmeal, rolled oats, baking powder, and raisins in a bowl.

  2. Add the molasses and hot water, and mix thoroughly.

Steam

  1. Pour the mixture into four greased baking powder cans, filling them two-thirds full.

  2. Cover the cans tightly and steam for 4 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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Rye + oatstop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together69 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Rye + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,320 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Rye + raisintop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  5. Raisin + molassestop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 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

Rye flour
Provides the structure of the loaf, with a earthy, dense crumb.
Cornmeal
Adds a coarse, grainy texture and bulk to the batter.
Rolled oats
Absorb moisture and add a tender, chewy texture to the crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas that helps the bread rise and lighten.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour, moisture and a deep flavour.
Raisins
Add pockets of sweetness and moisture throughout the loaf.

The step that matters

Filling the cans two-thirds full. Batter rises as it steams, so overfilling can cause it to spill over or bake unevenly, while underfilling leaves a dense loaf. Leaving room for expansion helps the bread rise evenly within the can.

“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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