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Missouri Brown Bread
One pint each of rye or Graham and Indian meal, one cup molasses, three-fourths cup sour milk, one and one-half tea-spoons soda, one and one-half pints cold water. Put on stove over cold water (all brown breads are better when put on to steam over cold water, which is afterwards brought to the boiling point and kept constantly boiling until bread is done); steam four hours, and brown over in the oven.-B. S. J., St. Joe, Mo.
A standard steamed brown bread, close kin to Boston brown bread but leaner — no wheat flour, no raisins, and leavened with soda alone against sour milk and molasses. The measurements are by volume throughout and translate cleanly.
- Indian mealThis is cornmeal, and in this period it meant a fairly fine yellow or white water-ground meal. Stone-ground fine cornmeal gives the closest texture; coarse polenta grind will make the loaf gritty.
- Graham flourGraham is whole wheat milled with the bran and germ left in, slightly coarser than modern whole-wheat flour. Either whole wheat or dark rye works; the two give quite different loaves, the rye denser and more sour.
- Sour milkGenuine clabbered raw milk is not available and shop milk left out simply spoils. Use buttermilk, or milk soured with a teaspoon of vinegar or lemon juice per cup, so the soda has acid to work against.
- VolumesA pint is two cups, so the batter is 2 cups meal, 2 cups Graham or rye, 1 cup molasses, 3/4 cup sour milk and 3 cups water — a very slack, pourable batter, which is correct for steamed bread.
- The vesselFill greased moulds — coffee tins, pudding basins or a lidded pudding mould — no more than two-thirds full and cover them, or condensation will waterlog the top.
- Starting in cold waterThe instruction to set the bread over cold water and bring it up together is emphasised by the recipe itself, which claims all brown breads are better for it. The usual explanation offered is that a slow rise in temperature lets the batter expand throughout before the outside sets, giving an even crumb rather than a dense edge; the recipe gives no reason of its own.
- Steaming timeFour hours suits a large mould; smaller tins may be done in two to three. Keep the water at a steady boil and top it up with boiling water so the pot never goes dry. A skewer should come out clean.
- Browning off"Brown over in the oven" means uncovering the loaves and drying the surface in a moderate oven; the book gives no temperature, but 15 to 20 minutes at around 350F answers. Turn them out of the tins while still warm or they will stick.
- Yield and servingTwo modest loaves, roughly twelve to sixteen slices. Cut warm with a length of thread rather than a knife, which drags in the sticky crumb, and serve with butter alongside beans or salt pork.
Steamed brown bread belongs to a long American tradition of baking without an oven: a lidded mould set in a kettle of boiling water on the hearth or range needed no fuel beyond what was already burning for the day's cooking, and no reliable oven at all. The pairing of cornmeal with rye or wheat and molasses is generally traced to New England, where it accompanied Saturday baked beans, but recipes travelled west with settlers and this one is signed from St. Joseph, Missouri, identified only by initials and town in the manner of cookbooks compiled from readers' contributions. Molasses did double duty here, sweetening the loaf and adding to the acidity, though the sour milk is the main acid the soda works against, and the batter is far too wet and heavy for yeast.