Name: Steamed Brown Bread
Ingredients: 1 cup sour milk; ⅓ cup molasses; 2 tablespoons brown sugar; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 large teaspoon baking soda; 2 cups graham flour; ½ cup wheat flour

Why it works: Milk and wheat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Steamed Brown Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

In a bowl, combine sour milk, molasses, brown sugar, salt, and baking soda.
Stir in graham flour and wheat flour until well mixed.
Pour the batter into a greased steaming dish.

Steam and bake

Steam for 2.5 hours.
After steaming, bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 30 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.

Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,418 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Milk and flour 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

Sour milk: Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to produce gas that lightens the bread.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to produce carbon dioxide for rising.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture, and its acidity helps the baking soda react.
Graham flour: Forms the main structure of the bread and gives it a coarse, hearty texture.
Wheat flour: Adds structure and helps the bread hold together with the graham flour.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and a deeper flavour, and some moisture.

The step that matters

Steaming the batter. The batter must be steamed long enough for the baking soda reaction to set the crumb while the bread stays moist. Steaming gently in a covered dish keeps the loaf from drying out or turning heavy.

“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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Wheat Gruel6 recipes

Tomato Soup526 recipes

Brown Bread461 recipes

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Steamed Brown Bread