Name: Nut Bread
Ingredients: ½ cup sugar; 2 eggs, beaten; 1 teaspoon salt; 2½ cups milk; 3 cups whole wheat flour; 1 cup white flour, sifted; 4 teaspoons baking powder; 1 cup chopped walnuts

Why it works: Wheat and walnut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 246 recipes. Both carry 1-hexanal, which smells fruit. The science ↓

Nut Bread

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Mix the batter

In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, beaten eggs, salt, and milk.
Add the whole wheat flour, white flour, and baking powder, and mix until combined.
Fold in the chopped walnuts.
Let the mixture stand for 30 minutes.

Bake

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan.
Bake for 30 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Wheat + walnuttop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together246 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,418 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,873 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter, lifting the loaf as it bakes.
Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
Whole wheat flour: Forms the main structure of the loaf and adds a nutty, hearty texture.
Walnuts: Add crunch and a nutty flavour that contrasts with the soft crumb.