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Bread

Brown Bread

A steamed bread made from cornmeal, rye meal, molasses, and yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Brown Bread

Why it works: Rye and milk work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 918 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Brown Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Combine cornmeal, molasses, rye meal, sour milk (or egg), yeast, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl.

  2. Add enough water to make a stiff batter.

  3. Pour the batter into a greased steaming mold.

Steam

  1. Steam steadily for three and a half 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together918 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  2. Molasses + ryetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Molasses + milktop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Cornmeal
Provides the main body and corn flavor of the bread.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture to the batter.
Rye meal
Adds a earthy flavor and helps give the crumb its dense texture.
Sour milk or egg
Sour milk adds acidity and moisture; egg adds moisture and helps bind the batter.
Yeast
Produces gas that lifts the batter as it rests and steams.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to release gas and lighten the crumb.

The step that matters

Steam steadily for the full time. Steam heats the batter gently and evenly. If the water stops simmering or the pot runs dry, heat drops and the bread cooks slowly, leaving it dense and underdone in the centre.

“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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