Boston Brown Bread from Townsman

Every diner at Townsman got a thin disc of Boston brown bread served atop a used colorful can in playful reference to the traditional vessel of choice in New England kitchens for steaming this misnamed pudding. Although the preparation straddles the savory and sweet, it is not the medieval artifact it appears but rather two nineteenth century trends in New England, a taste for sweeter foods and the yearning for an imagined seventeenth century arcadia.

The recipe is typical of what Townsman did so well during its short lifespan. It reimagined New England food by tweaking traditional technique and utilizing unexpected additions, most prominently in this recipe beaten eggwhites and a trace of Korean soybean paste.

In terms of technique, Townsman bakes the pudding in a bain marie instead of steaming it straight up on the stove. In theory the innovation cooks the batter more evenly. In practice it is hard to discern much difference.

Devotees of the Old School need not fear the innovations; this brown bread tastes like brown bread should. It is, however, a little lighter than the traditional pudding, not quite so sweet and does have a little more depth of flavor.

• nonstick cooking spray or butter for greasing
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1 cup rye flour
• 1 cup whole whest flour
• 1 cup lightly packed brown sugar
• heaped ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• ½ teaspoon coarse salt (we like Maldon)
• 1 Tablespoon Korean soybean paste (doenjang; see the Notes)
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 4-5 eggwhites
• scant ¾ cup blackstrap molasses

Preheat the oven to 350°.

1. Grease two 10 oz coffee cans.
2. Whisk the three flours with the brown sugar, baking powder and soda, and salt.
3. Combine the soybean paste and buttermilk in another bowl.
4. Whip the eggwhites with 1 Tablespoon of the molasses until stiff and peaky.
5. Whisk the rest of the molasses into the buttermilk.
6. Slowly stir together the buttermilk mix into the dry ingredients.
7. Fold the eggwhites into the mix in two stages.
8. Pour the batter into the cans. Grease two pieces of foil and attach the tightly to the open end of each coffee can.
9. Set the cans in a pan or dish and pour in enough boiling water to rise a quarter of the way up the cans. Bake the brown bread until the top pops back when lightly pushed, usually in about an hour and forty minutes.
10. Let the bread cool for about 20 minutes on a wire rack before slicing and serving the brown bread.

Notes:

-Meghan Thompson, the pastry chef at Townsman who created the recipe, uses half a cup each of light and dark rye flour, and toasts the light rye in a heavy skillet over medium heat, whisking it “for 7 minutes.” We did notice a difference between the toasty and untoasted flours, and did not notice much difference between light or dark rye, alone or in combination.

-All the flours used by Townsman were stone ground.

-If you do not have the soybean paste, substitute something else with the tang of umami, like Chinese black bean paste--so long as it does not include garlic.

-If you do not have any coffee cans, use a standard 9x5 inch bread pan but if you do, cook the brown bread longer, usually for about two hours.