Thanks, Amy. This is interesting. I am reminded of my mother's oven from the 1960s or 70s: a black box with a door that was placed on a "chulha," or a coal-fired stove (a bucket lined with clay) -- no electric power!
I love Boston Brown Bread! My first memory of Boston Brown Bread was in first grade (early 1970s) when my teacher recreated a New England Thanksgiving meal, and as part of the celebration,we opened cans of Boston Brown Bread and a lovely can of Pepperidge Farms Indian Pudding. Since then, I’ve made Renee Becker’s BBB with dried blueberries and a few other recipes. Finding coffee cans these days is a challenge, but worth it for the nostalgic touch. A generous schmear of butter is a must!
This makes me wonder if Boston Brown Bread is related to boiled puddings? And also speculate that it is steamed not so much because of the unreliability of bake ovens, but because of the dearth of gluten in rye and corn to make bread leaven in a quick (i.e. hot) oven, and also because many of the earliest Colonial households did not have bake ovens - only open hearths. Much easier to boil or steam things than bake them. Which is why cakes and cookies remain expensive and/or professionally baked special occasion foods for most of American history, but pie does not. And also why pan-baked breads like cornbread become so popular in early America.
Hi Sarah, this bread is definitely linked to puddings, but many of the recipes I see for it do have wheat as well as rye and cornmeal. Paula Marcoux talks about the hearth bread history of cornmeal rye/thirded bread— I am indebted to her for much of my knowledge of cooking food in colonial New England.
How was the Boston Brown Bread traditionally baked? In the can? What was the heat source? Oven, electric or coal?
Here’s a series of ideas about it.
https://www.britishfoodinamerica.com/A-Number-of-Historical-Figures-featuring-Bostonian-Foodways/the-lyrical/A-note-on-Boston-brown-bread/#.Y25jZC1Omf0
In cans, in kettles steamed on top of wood fired stoves. The fuel transitioned over time.
Thanks, Amy. This is interesting. I am reminded of my mother's oven from the 1960s or 70s: a black box with a door that was placed on a "chulha," or a coal-fired stove (a bucket lined with clay) -- no electric power!
http://angshumandas.substack.com
I love Boston Brown Bread! My first memory of Boston Brown Bread was in first grade (early 1970s) when my teacher recreated a New England Thanksgiving meal, and as part of the celebration,we opened cans of Boston Brown Bread and a lovely can of Pepperidge Farms Indian Pudding. Since then, I’ve made Renee Becker’s BBB with dried blueberries and a few other recipes. Finding coffee cans these days is a challenge, but worth it for the nostalgic touch. A generous schmear of butter is a must!
Canned pudding!
This makes me wonder if Boston Brown Bread is related to boiled puddings? And also speculate that it is steamed not so much because of the unreliability of bake ovens, but because of the dearth of gluten in rye and corn to make bread leaven in a quick (i.e. hot) oven, and also because many of the earliest Colonial households did not have bake ovens - only open hearths. Much easier to boil or steam things than bake them. Which is why cakes and cookies remain expensive and/or professionally baked special occasion foods for most of American history, but pie does not. And also why pan-baked breads like cornbread become so popular in early America.
Hi Sarah, this bread is definitely linked to puddings, but many of the recipes I see for it do have wheat as well as rye and cornmeal. Paula Marcoux talks about the hearth bread history of cornmeal rye/thirded bread— I am indebted to her for much of my knowledge of cooking food in colonial New England.