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Nut Loaf

Nut loaf is a baked loaf made with bread crumbs, milk, egg, tomato pulp, peanuts, walnuts, butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Nut Loaf

Why it works: Peanut and walnut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 241 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Nut Loaf

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.

Prepare

  1. Soak the bread crumbs in the milk for 30 minutes.

Shape and bake

  1. Add the beaten egg, softened butter, tomato pulp, nuts, salt, and pepper.

  2. Mix well and shape into a loaf.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C), basting with melted butter, bacon, or pork fat.

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.

  1. Peanut + walnuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together241 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Tomato + peanuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together315 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Binds the loaf so it holds its shape when sliced.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the milk and add soft body that keeps the loaf moist.
Peanut meats
Provide the main bulk, texture, and rich nutty flavor.
Walnut meats
Add crunch and a deeper, slightly bitter nutty flavor.
Butter or fat
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the surface brown during baking.
Tomato pulp
Adds moisture and a mild acidity that balances the nuts.

The step that matters

Baking with basting. Nut loaves are dense and can dry out or brown unevenly in the oven. Basting with melted fat keeps the surface moist and promotes even browning as the loaf bakes.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, peanut, meat, walnut, butter, bread, milk):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, peanut, meat, walnut, butter, bread, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

More nut loaf recipes

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