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Boston Brown Bread
1 cup corn-meal 1 cup rye flour 1 cup graham flour 3/4 tablespoon soda 1 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup molasses 2 cups sour milk or 1 3/4 cup sweet milk Mix and sift the ingredients. Mix the molasses and milk and add to the dry ingredients. Beat thoroughly and turn into well-greased molds, filling each mold about two-thirds full. Cover and steam three hours. Remove the covers and bake the bread long enough to dry it off.
A standard three-meal brown bread, steamed rather than baked. The whole method hinges on keeping the water at a steady simmer for the full three hours without letting it boil dry.
- The moldsStraight-sided one-pound coffee cans, pudding molds, or wide-mouth pint canning jars all work. Grease well, fill two-thirds full to leave room for rise, and cover with a lid or a double layer of foil tied down so condensation cannot drip in.
- Steaming setupStand the molds on a rack in a deep pot, add boiling water to come halfway up their sides, cover the pot, and keep it at a bare simmer. Check the water level hourly and top up with boiling water, never cold.
- Sour milk means buttermilkSour milk was milk left to go naturally acidic. Cultured buttermilk is the usual modern substitute and reacts with the soda in much the same way.
- If you use sweet milkThe recipe offers plain milk as a substitute, but then the molasses is the only acid present, and 3/4 tablespoon of soda (about 2 1/4 teaspoons) may not be fully neutralized; the loaf can taste faintly soapy. Sour milk or buttermilk is the safer choice.
- Graham flourGraham flour is coarsely ground whole wheat, and ordinary whole-wheat flour is a fair stand-in. Rye flour should be light or medium rye, not pumpernickel.
- MolassesUse unsulphured dark molasses, not blackstrap, which is markedly more bitter than what this recipe assumes.
- Drying offThe final step is short: uncover and put the molds in the oven at about 350F for 10 to 15 minutes, just until the surface loses its wet sheen. A skewer to the center should come out clean.
- ServingTurn out while still warm or the loaves stick. Slice with a length of thread or a serrated knife rather than pressing down with a blade, which compacts the crumb.