Home › Seven Weeks' Menus › Steamed Boston Brown Bread
Steamed Boston Brown Bread
1 cup yellow corn meal 1 cup rye or graham flour 1 cup whole wheat flour 1 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons soda 1/2 cup molasses 2 cups sour milk (thick) 1/2 cup raisins Sift dry ingredients, add raisins and molasses, add sour milk and beat. Pour into well greased molds until two-thirds full. Cover and steam 3 1/2 hours; take from steamer and remove covers and put in a moderate oven for about 25 minutes.
A standard three-meal brown bread, leavened entirely by soda reacting with soured milk and molasses. The critical points are the sour milk and the two-thirds fill line.
- Sour milkThis means naturally clabbered raw milk, thick and acidic. Pasteurized milk left out spoils rather than souring usefully. Buttermilk is the direct substitute, cup for cup; failing that, add 2 tablespoons lemon juice or white vinegar to 2 cups milk and let it stand 10 minutes.
- Two-thirds fullDo not overfill. The batter climbs as the soda works and the bread needs headroom under the lid or it will force the cover and steam unevenly.
- Molds and covers1-pound coffee tins were commonly used; pudding molds, straight-sided tin cans or a 1-quart pudding basin all work. Grease well and cover tightly with greased foil tied down, or the lid, so no condensation drips onto the loaf.
- Steaming setupSet the molds on a rack in a deep pot with boiling water reaching halfway up their sides, lid on, water kept at a bare simmer. Check the level every hour and top up with boiling water so it never runs dry.
- Moderate oven350F. The 25 minutes uncovered is a drying step that firms the crust after steaming; the bread is already cooked through by then.
- Soda quantityTwo teaspoons for three cups of meal and flour is on the generous side, and it depends on genuinely acid milk to neutralize it. Weak buttermilk will leave a soapy note.
- Doneness and yieldA skewer into the center should come out clean and the loaf should pull slightly from the mold. Yield depends on mold size; expect two to three loaves, each cutting into 8 to 10 rounds.
- ServingCool 10 minutes in the mold, then turn out. Traditionally sliced with a taut string rather than a knife, which drags in the moist crumb, and served warm with butter or beside baked beans.