Wednesday, January 2, 2019

Boston brown bread



Random association happens to me. A sort of idle past time, perhaps. Free association may be a closer descriptor. Something I see triggers a string of associations that may form a cloud of images, snatched away almost before I see or recognize them. And occasionally, something sticks.

I was deep in the aisles of our free range grocery store a while back, simply trying to locate and memorize the location of items I might want some day. Lima beans, for instance. 

I’d located frozen lima beans, had no hope for canned lima beans, but held out for the possibility of dried limas way in the back. The far opposite end of the store from organic peanut butter, stocked in isolation with dried fruit.

Deep in the cream of tartar section of the store, on a top shelf, I saw rye flour, and whole wheat flour. And blackstrap molasses. On the way home I asked Laura if she’d ever had Boston brown bread, a wasted inquiry of a seventeen year old, of course.

“Do you have any empty tin cans?” I asked. But, she doesn’t source food from tin cans. “You made chili!” And she had, probably last September.

We had a lot of Boston brown bread when I grew up, compliments of me. I loved it, and it really was as simple as washing clean a couple of tin cans, and keeping track of them until the weekend. Probably the only ingredient that came up short was buttermilk or sour milk, and that was as simple as regular milk and vinegar and half an hour.

Mom always had wheat or rye flour on hand, and cornmeal. I see in the google recipe, the cornmeal must be fine ground. As if! I wonder if you could even buy it fine ground in 1947. Cream cheese? When federal farm subsidies fly. There always were raisins on hand, and brown sugar. And so, a couple of loaves of Boston brown bread for supper on Saturday night.

I wondered tonight if I could buy tin cans to bake round loaves of bread. So, I set out on a search. The closest I came was little tins, three inches across and an inch high. I leaned back in the chair and thought about Boston brown bread. 

Of course! It had to come out of the can by the awkward method of putting the can on its side, on something high enough to keep the top of the loaf intact, and use the can opener to get the bottom off the can. Then, use the bottom to push out the loaf.

I remember it with hot dogs and baked beans. (Boston baked beans?) With sauerkraut and pork chops. With tomato soup.


Oh no! I bet modern tin cans cannot be used.

38 comments:

  1. Sadly, I must confess I have never eaten Boston brown bread. The photo makes the mouth water. I'll hunt for tin cans.

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  2. I've never BBB either, not being a fan of molasses. I'll bet you can use the large Campbell's soup cans. They don't seem to have changed much. They're still tough enough to take hot bacon grease.

    The cream of tartar section of the store? Terrific!

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  3. I'll look up a recipe...it sounds good.

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  4. You may be right...the cans we have now can't be opened at either end, just the top... I think. Or maybe there are some out there that can(no pun intended). Now I have to go look.

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  5. DKZody messaged me, since WordPress won't let her post here anymore, that she remembers it always as steamed, so I perused the recopies, and it is, steamed in the oven. I cannot remember that part, but it must be true. It looks almost like baking a custard. I remember putting the pan of custard into another pan of water, to bake without a crust on the bottom. The bread steaming seems to be keeping the bread moist. My oh my, seventy five years can seem so old, at times.

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    1. Yes, but don't you have to have an end on both ends to steam it?

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  6. Oh, that looks so good. Yes, modern cans have a coating. What does google say about that?

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  7. I remember my mom buying Boston brown bread at the store on a regular basis. A couple of years ago I sought out a recipe and made it....in a loaf pan. If you search the internet you can find a recipe.

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  8. Lima beans must be the worst. Many years ago, I intoned that they tasted like velvet curtains.

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  9. I saw something that looked like what you are talking about in Kroger’s last week. It’s funny because I showed it to DH and asked if he remembered eating this growing up? He did. I used to pour cream (evaporated milk) over mine.

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  10. Possibly modern tin cans can't be used, but find a shop that sells things like cake tins and kitchenwares and buy a nut-loaf tin. They are open on each end with a cap that fits each end for the baking process and that should do the Boston Brown Bread nicely.
    I've never had Boston Brown Bread but we did have home made date and walnut loaf quite often, sometimes sliced with butter as a snack, sometimes with warm vanilla custard as a dessert especially in winter.

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  11. P.S. canned lima beans would be in the canned vegetables aisle?

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    1. This is a natural food store and I can find few canned goods. I haven't asked, just poked around.

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  12. I think my age must be telling. Just within the last week I was thinking about my mother's Boston baked beans, which she always served with brown bread. Back then (60 years ago) she bought the bread ready-made....in a tin can.

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  13. It looks delicious! Never heard of it though especially with the uniqueness of baking in a can.

    betty

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  14. I too have never had Boston Brown Bread. River beat me to the punch on the nut-loaf tin. And you don't need a can opener to get into them.

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  15. My memory banks are activated by reading this post! I didn't remember the name of this bread, but I surely recall this bread (eaten with cream cheese) from my childhood. Did we buy it in the can...? I don't remember having made it with mom in the kitchen. Our forays into baking veered more toward cream puffs, cookies and cakes. Thanks for the memory.

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  16. I can buy Boston Brown Bread at the grocery store, B&M brand that I keep in my emergency box in the car during the winter. We then we use it when we go camping and eat it with baked beans that we cook.

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  17. When I was a kid, a friend's Mom used to make Boston brown bread using big Maxwell House coffee tins with each end cut out. She was the only person I ever knew who made this bread.

    I bought a lovely loaf of pumpernickel bread today. I've been craving it for quite awhile but it's hard to find. I've enjoyed two sandwiches made with it so far. Yum!

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  18. In the fifties we made fruit breads in tin cans. It was a perfect size for gifts too. I never thought about it but I'll bet you're right... modern cans probably would not work.

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  19. One of my favorite things as a child, although I'm pretty sure my mother didn't make it herself in spite of being an accomplished bread maker.
    I have actually made it but it was several years ago, before tin cans got weird.
    BBB toasted with butter - fabulous!

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  20. Hari om
    As a bread baker, am now on the hunt! YAM xx

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  21. Now I find myself longing for something I've never heard about it before.

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  22. They don't seem to make cans which don't have those ridges on the side do they? Damn. I am going to spend the next couple of days trying to think of another container for you. I know - catering cans. Find a restaurant which buys things like tinned tomatoes in bulk, then make a huge Boston loaf?

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  23. No need for the can to be open on both ends - grease it well before filling and the bread will slide right of the top. And ridges on the can are fine and traditional - a feature not a bug as they say.

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  24. My husband’s grandmother used cans to bake breads, such as banana. It was a great idea!

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  25. I am going to have to give this a go, especially given that I live only 20 miles from Boston (Lincolnshire!). I just need to find some suitable tins. Everything else is in the pantry. I'll let you know how it goes.

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  26. I have never made the bread in the tin cans.....I have made bread though.....now we don't eat bread so...dang it...now I want bread.

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  27. Not many people here make their own, preferring to buy Fries ryebread in the supermarket. But kitchenware shops sell tins like that which open in half lenghtways, if you se what I mean.
    Dutch recipes refer to 'cooking' rather than 'baking' ryebread, sometimes for hours.

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  28. I haven't made it in years! What a trip down Memory Lane on the Boston Brown Bread bus! I don't even think you can get tins large enough now. Everything's been downsized except the price. Damn. I think I have to make it now.

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  29. I think modern cans have some sort of plasticish coating. How about buying a plain flower pot? I've used them. Put a piece of foil in the bottom, grease up the sides. Love Boston Brown bread. I was taught how by a friend from New Brunswick whose ancestors probably came from Mass. originally. Seems most folks in NB started life in America in Mass.

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  30. I have plenty of tin cans as the recycling station container/smusher is out of service. would be happy to send you as many as you want! I'll have to check the bottoms though to see if a can opener will work since they all come with pull tab tops now, mostly. at least the ones I have. as to rye flour, the husband and I were just talking about that when he showed me a recipe for rye bread. we don't think we have ever seen rye flour in the grocery store.

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  31. did you know that b and m beans make canned brown bread? I buy it at my store sometimes. you can look it up on amazon. I buy it at Walmart.
    Ingredients
    water, whole wheat flour, molasses, dextrose, rye flour, raisins, whey, degerminated yellow corn meal, baking soda, buttermilk, salt, corn oil. We like it with cream cheese, or toasted with butter.

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  32. One of my best friend's mother made this. It was so delicious and I always loved it and have no idea why I've never made it myself.
    Thank you for reminding me.

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    1. I put all the ingredients on this week's shopping list, and investigated the pan cupboard and assembled a reasonable rig to be getting on with, so Boston brown will be a weekend project. I remember it is available commercially, too, but before I go that route I want to see if I can get it done.

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  33. Modern tin cans are only tin coated. I suggest you buy a cheap loaf tin.

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  34. I used to make this when I was very involved in the Medina Herb Society - long ago.
    That's where I knew Becky Monagan.
    I made several loaves each year and cut them into slices and made herbed cream cheese to turn them into sandwiches. We sold these at our annual plant sale. Even then I think there were questions about the tins because of the material used in the seams. I think what you make yourself will be better than anything you can buy.

    I think I baked another bread in coffee cans. Not sure what it was, but I believe I have the recipe handwritten on a front page of my Joy of Cooking. Have fun, Joanne.

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