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Boston Brown Bread
Formula No. 1 Graham flour, 14 lbs.
Hard wheat flour, 6 lbs.
Fine corn meal, 12 lbs.
Rye flour, or fine rye meal, 6 lbs.
Baking powder, 16¼ ozs.
Bicarbonate of soda, 5¼ ozs.
Method Blend the different meals and flour with the baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and sift together several times. After they have been sifted, again blend to assure a uniform mixture.
Formula No. 2 Graham flour, 12 lbs.
Hard wheat flour, 12 lbs.
Corn meal, 12 lbs.
Fine rye meal, 6 lbs.
Baking powder, 18 ozs.
Bicarbonate of soda, 6 ozs.
Method Employ the same method as mentioned above in incorporating the ingredients. To each quart of water used, add 2 lbs. of the above mixture, 1 gill of molasses, 1 oz. of shortening and ½ oz. of salt and mix.
This is a bakery trade formula: a large batch of dry mix to be kept on hand, plus a ratio for wetting off as much as you need. Scaling it down is the first job.
- Scale to the ratio, not the batchFormula No. 1 makes 38 lb of dry mix, No. 2 makes 42 lb. Work instead from the wetting ratio at the end: 2 lb mix to 1 quart water, 1 gill molasses, 1 oz shortening. A household loaf is about 8 oz (225 g) of mix to 1 cup water, 2 tablespoons molasses and about 1/4 oz of fat (1 1/2 teaspoons).
- A gillHalf a cup, 4 fluid ounces. One gill of molasses per quart of water is a modest sweetening by modern standards; the original formulas rely on the corn and rye for flavour rather than sugar.
- Graham flourWhole wheat flour, coarser than today's standard grind. Stone-ground whole wheat is the closest match; regular whole wheat works but gives a smoother crumb.
- Hard wheat flourBread flour. It is there for structure: corn meal contributes no gluten and rye very little usable gluten, while the bran in graham flour cuts what gluten it has.
- Sift, then blend againThe instruction to sift several times and remix is the hinge of the formula. Baking powder and soda have to be distributed evenly through 38 lb of heavy meals or the loaves rise unevenly and taste of soda in patches. In a small batch, whisk the dry mix thoroughly for a full minute.
- Molasses does real workMolasses is acidic and reacts with the bicarbonate of soda, though the large quantity of baking powder in the formula is self-acting and does not depend on it. Unsulphured cooking molasses is the usual choice; blackstrap gives a harsher flavour.
- Cooking methodThe formula gives no baking direction because Boston brown bread was traditionally steamed rather than baked: filled two-thirds full into covered cylindrical moulds and steamed about three hours. Baked in a loaf tin instead, it comes out drier and crusted rather than moist and dense.
- Storing the dry mixBaking powder and soda lose strength once blended with damp meal, and whole grain flours go rancid. Keep any mix you are not using promptly in a sealed container in the freezer and use it within a few weeks.
- YieldTwo pounds of mix, a quart of water, the molasses and the shortening make roughly 4 1/4 lb of batter.
Boston brown bread belongs to the New England tradition of steamed grain loaves, built on rye and corn meal because both grew reliably in the Northeast when wheat did not. Older versions were leavened slowly or not at all and cooked for hours in the residual heat of a brick oven or in a kettle of water; molasses was there from the earliest home recipes, and it is the chemical leavening here that reflects the later commercial version, sold sliced thin alongside baked beans on Saturday nights. Its appearance in a baker's formula book is telling: a loaf that had been a home economy of the wood-stove kitchen had become a bakery line item, standardised into a dry mix that a shop could keep in a bin and wet off to order. The steaming, which is what gives the bread its close, moist, almost pudding-like crumb, is why the trade sold it in cylinders rather than pans.