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Boston Brown Bread (One cupful each of rye)
One cupful each of rye and cornmeal, one cupful of graham flour, three-quarters of a cupful of molasses, one teaspoonful and a half of soda, one teaspoonful of salt and one pint of sour milk, one even teaspoonful of baking powder. Mix and sift together the meal, flour, salt and baking powder. Add the soda to the molasses and when it begins to foam, stir into the dry mixture. Add quickly the sour milk, beat for a moment, turn into a thoroughly greased mold and steam four hours.
A steamed, unbaked loaf that needs almost no skill but a great deal of patience. The only real equipment question is what you steam it in.
- Sour milkThis means naturally soured raw milk, thick and acidic. Cultured buttermilk is the direct substitute, one pint. Milk soured with a tablespoon of vinegar will work but is thinner and less tangy.
- Graham flourCoarsely ground whole wheat, named for Sylvester Graham. Ordinary stone-ground whole wheat flour is the closest thing on a modern shelf.
- RyeThe book means rye meal — coarser than the fine rye flour sold today. Either works; medium or dark rye flour gives a slightly denser crumb.
- The moldA lidded pudding mold, or two well-greased one-pound coffee cans covered with foil. Fill only two-thirds full; the batter climbs considerably, and a sealed tight mold will force the lid off.
- How to steamStand the mold on a rack in a deep pot, add boiling water to reach halfway up the sides, cover, and keep the water at a bare simmer. Top up with boiling water as it drops — running dry is the usual failure.
- Four hoursNot an exaggeration for a large mold, though smaller cans will be done sooner. The loaf is ready when a skewer comes out clean and the top springs back.
- LeaveningA teaspoon and a half of soda plus a teaspoon of baking powder is a heavy hand by current standards, and the molasses is what keeps it from tasting soapy. Do not increase the soda, and use full-flavored (not blackstrap) molasses.
- Finishing and yieldUncover and set the loaf in a 300F oven for ten minutes to dry the surface, then turn out. It slices best cool, with a length of thread rather than a knife.
Brown bread of this kind belongs to a New England household economy in which wheat flour was expensive and imported, while rye grew locally and corn grew everywhere — the older name for the same mixture was "rye and Indian." Steaming rather than baking suited a kitchen where the brick oven was fired only once or twice a week; a covered mold could sit over the fire on any ordinary day. Its pairing with baked beans, both traditionally eaten on Saturday night, is usually traced to Puritan sabbath observance, when cooking on Sunday was avoided and slow-cooked dishes carried the household through. By the time this book was printed, chemical leavening had replaced the yeast that older versions used, and the loaf had become what it remains: a sweet, dense, faintly sour bread eaten in thin rounds with butter.