Steamed Brown Bread

This is what you eat with your Baked Beans on a Saturday night. We grew up eating the brown bread that came in cans, but this is much, much better.

I have classified this recipe with the "quick breads," meaning that it is a non-yeast bread, not that it is cooked quickly. This recipe classification business is not for the faint of heart, but you know that I am a librarian, and therefore willing to fuss with it quite infinitely.

1 cup sifted white flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup corn meal
1 cup stirred graham or whole-wheat flour
¾ cup dark molasses
2 cups buttermilk or sour milk (remember—to sour milk add a tsp. or two of lemon juice to sweet milk and let stand for 10 minutes)
1 cup seedless raisins

Sift white flour with baking powder, soda, and salt; add corn meal and graham flour. Add remaining ingredients; beat well.

Half-fill 3 greased 1-pound coffee cans or 5-1 pound baking-powder cans; cover tightly (foil and string); steam 3 hours on rack in covered pan, using small amount of boiling water (add water as needed).

Uncover cans; place in very hot (450) oven for 5 minutes; remove bread from cans.

Slice and serve with Baked Beans.