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Steamed Brown Bread

A steamed bread made with Indian meal, rye meal, molasses, baking soda, and sour milk or buttermilk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Steamed Brown Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a large bowl, combine the Indian meal, rye meal, and baking soda.

  2. In another bowl, mix the molasses with enough sour milk or buttermilk to create a pourable batter.

Steam

  1. Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients until well mixed.

  2. Pour the mixture into a greased steaming mold.

  3. Steam for 5 to 6 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. Rye + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together918 recipes

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

  2. Rye + molassestop 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

Indian meal
Provides the main body and structure of the bread.
Rye meal
Adds a dense texture and a distinctive earthy flavor.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a dark color to the bread.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk or buttermilk to help the bread rise.
Sour milk or buttermilk
Supplies liquid to form a pourable batter and acidity to activate the baking soda.

The step that matters

Steam for 5 to 6 hours. Steaming must run long enough at a steady gentle heat to fully set the dense batter. Too little time leaves the center gummy, and the mold must be kept covered so steam, not dry heat, cooks the bread.

“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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