Because the batter lacks any real structure (no eggs, no gluten-producing flour), the can is there to hold it all together until the starches gelatinize and set. If only my family knew then what I know now: This bread is incredibly easy to make.
In New England, one of the most popular varieties of brown bread is made by B&M in Portland, Maine, and it’s sold in a can. Canned bread might sound strange to the non-native Yankee to imagine buying bread in a can at the supermarket alongside the baked beans (which B&M also makes with pride), but if you’ve ever steamed a loaf yourself at home, you know it can take awhile, making brown bread in a can a handy alternative. It’s not clear when B&M (the letters stand for co-founders George Burnham and Charles Morrill) started selling their version of the classic New England bread (a sweet variety made from cornmeal, wheat and rye flours, and molasses), but like its Necco Wafer and Moxie soda kin, the canned bread has been around so long it’s hard to imagine a time when it wasn’t for sale. The company got its start back in 1867 canning meats, seafood, and corn, but by 1927 B&M’s brick oven baked beans hit the market, and business (if you’ll pardon the pun) boomed on a national scale. The company was sold several times starting in 1965, but despite each new ownership, both the B&M name and the Portland plant have remained. [text_ad] When eating canned bread (B&M sells the bread in both original and “with raisins” for those that like things sweet), a handy can opener is necessary to first remove both the top and bottom lids, and then, with a gentle shake, the bread emerges and is ready for slicing. Dense, moist, and made from natural ingredients, B&M’s brown bread is a solid ready-to-eat representative of the classic New England dish. Some folks enjoy eating the bread sliced up as-is at room temperature, but you can also warm it in the microwave or toaster oven. It’s good topped with butter, cream cheese, or jam. You can also make it a meal by serving the canned bread topped with a generous ladle of baked beans. Hot dogs on the plate are also not uncommon. In many households, hot dogs and baked beans with brown bread (canned or homemade) was a Saturday night tradition. For many, it still is. 
Are you a fan of B&M Brown Bread in a can? Do you like it with butter or beans? Hot dogs? All three? Share your brown bread in a can memories with us! Want to try your hand at a homemade version of steamed brown bread and baked beans? Try Granny’s Brown Bread with classic Boston-Style Baked Beans. This post was first published in 2014 and has been updated.
So I’m not sure this is truly colonial bread. (On days like this, I feel like calling my blog Possibly Revolutionary Pie.) At any rate, it’s very old. It was usually steamed in cylindrical or melon-shaped metal molds, and eventually the resourceful New Englanders started using coffee cans, a tradition that continues today. I used a one-quart metal pudding mold, which would have been typical in the 18th or 19th century. I followed a recipe by Evan Jones from American Food, with some help from Laurie Colwin’s Home Cooking, one of my favorite cookbooks of all time. This bread takes a while but is very easy and worth the time. It has the consistency of a moist muffin, with a rich molasses flavor that improves over a day or two.
Note: If you’re interested in making this bread using coffee cans, see Aimee Seavey’s “Brown Bread in a Can” on YankeeMagazine.com. Or if you’re feeling very lazy, you can buy the above-mentioned B&M Brown Bread on Amazon or at vermontcountrystore.com.
I got the idea for making Boston brown bread when I saw several big cans of B&M Brown Bread in my mother’s kitchen cupboard the other day. Bread in a can — how weird is that? It’s surprisingly edible, and might be just the thing to stock for the next hurricane. But if you live outside of New England, good luck finding it. “I know what you’re talking about, we don’t have it, and you’re the first person who’s ever asked for it!” said my local grocer.
I wanted to make this bread from scratch anyway, since it dates back to colonial times, or nearly so. Wheat flour was scarce in the American colonies, so “make-do” breads were made from other flours, or a combination of wheat and other flours. Boston brown bread — called just brown bread in New England — contained rye flour, wheat flour, and cornmeal. These were mixed with molasses and buttermilk, and the bread was steamed in a kettle over a fire.
According to John Mariani’s Dictionary of American Food and Drink, this bread dates back to the time of the Puritans. One theory is that 17th-century settlers steamed bread because few of them had ovens, and it was an easy way to make bread over an open fire. But other food historians claim that this bread didn’t exist until well into the 19th century, and that it was predated by baked yeast breads like Rye and Indian, made from rye flour and cornmeal.
The Great Molasses Flood | Boston Brown Bread
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