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Nut Loaf

A steamed loaf made from ground hickory nuts, peanuts, breadcrumbs, and seasonings, served with cranberry jelly or tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Nut Loaf

Why it works: Mustard and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,928 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Nut Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine the ground hickory nuts, peanuts, breadcrumbs, water or milk, salt, pepper, mustard, and allspice.

  2. Add enough water or milk until the mixture is soft.

  3. Roll the mixture in a thin cloth and steam for 45 minutes.

  4. Serve with cranberry jelly or tomato sauce.

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. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Nuts + peanuttop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together81 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Peanut + mustardtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together102 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

Ground hickory nuts and peanuts
Provide the main body, fat and nutty flavour of the loaf.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb liquid and bind the nuts so the loaf holds its shape.
Water or milk
Moistens the crumbs so the mixture softens and sets through steaming.

The step that matters

Add enough water or milk until the mixture is soft. Breadcrumbs absorb liquid at different rates, so the mixture must be moist enough to hold together when rolled. Too dry a mix will crumble and too wet a mix will turn heavy and slack during steaming.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peanut, milk, pepper, mustard, allspice):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Sesamefits better
  3. Walnutfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peanut, milk, pepper, mustard, allspice. 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.

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