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Boston Brown Bread
Beat together thoroughly 2 cupfuls New Orleans molasses, 2 cupfuls sweet milk, 1 cupful sour milk. Add to this 1 heaping cupful each of corn meal rye, and Graham flour, 1 teaspoonful salt, and 1 dessertspoonful soda, thoroughly mixed together and sifted. Pour into a well-buttered tin mould or pail with a tight-fitting lid (the mixture should fill the mould about three-fourths full), place in a kettle of cold water and boil four hours. See that the water does not boil up to the top of the mould; also take care that it does not stop boiling, or boil entirely away. To serve, remove the lid of the mould and set it a few minutes in the oven to dry the top; it will then turn out in perfect shape.
A steamed, not baked, bread: the sealed mould sits in simmering water for hours, which is what gives Boston brown bread its dense, moist crumb and dark colour. The one thing to guard is the water level, since a dry kettle scorches the mould and stalls the cooking.
- Boil means simmerA rolling boil for four hours will splash into the mould and boil dry. Keep the water at a steady bare simmer, topped up with boiling water from a kettle so the temperature never drops.
- Dessertspoonful of sodaA dessertspoon is two teaspoons. With two cups of molasses and a cup of sour milk there is plenty of acid for it to work against.
- Sour milkThis means milk left to sour on its own, which is not what modern pasteurised milk does. Use buttermilk, or a cup of whole milk with a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar stirred in and left ten minutes.
- New Orleans molassesA mid-grade cane molasses, darker and stronger than table syrup but not blackstrap. Ordinary unsulphured molasses is the closest match; blackstrap will make the loaf bitter.
- Graham flourCoarse whole-wheat flour, stone-ground with the bran and germ left in. Modern whole-wheat flour works; stone-ground gives the right texture.
- The three mealsEqual heaping cups of cornmeal, rye flour and Graham flour, sifted with the salt and soda before they meet the liquid. Sift or whisk them well, as unmixed soda leaves dark bitter streaks.
- The mouldA pudding mould or several buttered tins, filled only three-quarters full to leave room to rise; the batter is bulky, so divide it if need be. If the lid does not clamp, cover with buttered foil and tie it down with string so no water gets in.
- Drying the topThe recipe has you remove the lid and set the mould a few minutes in the oven to dry the damp crown, after which it should turn out cleanly.
- Yield and servingServing -- Cut thick with a length of string or a serrated knife rather than pressing down with a blade, and serve warm with butter or beside baked beans.
Boston brown bread belongs to a New England tradition of steamed puddings and breads made from the grains that grew well in a cold climate: cornmeal and rye, with wheat as the expensive third. Steaming in a closed tin over the fire predates the reliable home oven, and the method survived long after ovens became common because it produces a moist, close crumb that baking cannot imitate. Molasses did the sweetening because it arrived cheaply by ship from the Caribbean sugar trade, and the pairing with Saturday-night baked beans is generally traced to the New England Sabbath, when the day's cooking was set going in advance. Compilations like this one carried the recipe well into the twentieth century, by which time it was also being sold in cans.