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Boston Brown Bread with Graham & Soda
2 C Graham flour 2 C sour milk 2 t soda 12 t salt Makes large loaf.
Mrs. M. R. Miller. 1 C corn meal 1 C New Orleans molasses Steam for 3½ hours and bake for 1/2 hour. Makes large loaf. Roy J. Titus Phone 519-W Phone 64
The ingredient list has been scrambled by the original typesetting: read it as 2 cups Graham flour, 1 cup cornmeal, 2 cups sour milk, 1 cup molasses, 2 teaspoons soda and 1/2 teaspoon salt. The "12 t salt" is a lost fraction, not twelve spoonfuls.
- The hinge: steam first, then bakeThe long steam sets the crumb of a batter far too wet to bake outright; the half hour in the oven only dries the crust. Keep the mold covered and the water at a bare simmer, topping it up with boiling water so it never runs dry.
- VesselNo pan is named. A covered pudding mold, or a coffee can, was a usual vessel for steamed breads of this kind. Fill any straight-sided mold two-thirds full, cover with foil tied on or a lid, and set it on a rack in a deep pot with water halfway up the sides.
- Sour milkThis meant milk left to clabber and turn mildly acidic and thick, not milk gone off. Cultured buttermilk is the direct stand-in; failing that, stir 2 tablespoons of lemon juice or vinegar into 2 cups of milk and let it stand ten minutes.
- SodaTwo teaspoons of soda for two cups of soured milk plus a cup of molasses is on the heavy side by modern taste and can leave a soapy, dark flavor. One to one and a half teaspoons is enough to raise this batter.
- Graham flour and cornmealGraham flour is coarse whole-wheat, stone-ground and unsifted; regular whole-wheat flour works, with a spoonful of wheat bran if you want the texture. Use plain yellow or white cornmeal, not a self-rising cornbread mix.
- New Orleans molassesCane molasses from Louisiana rather than the West Indies, sold as a table-grade syrup rather than blackstrap. Ordinary unsulphured molasses is the closest match; blackstrap will turn the loaf bitter.
- OvenNo temperature is given. A moderate oven of 350F for the finishing half hour is right; the loaf is done when a skewer comes out clean and the top is dry to the touch.
- Yield and servingOne large loaf. Traditionally cut with a length of thread rather than a knife, and served with butter alongside baked beans.
Steamed brown bread is a New England habit built on the two grains and one sweetener that were cheap and widely available: cornmeal, coarse whole wheat, and molasses. Because it cooks over water rather than in the oven, it suited the Saturday routine of baked beans, when the oven was given over to the bean pot and the bread could sit steaming on the stovetop for hours with little watching. Commercially canned brown bread was sold in the same cylindrical shape a coffee can gave at home. The stray telephone numbers at the end are most likely advertising from a neighbouring column, a reminder that these community collections were commonly funded by local merchants whose names ran between the recipes.