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Nana's Nut Bread

"This recipe was my grandmother's. The breads are baked in coffee cans!"

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 43,437 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

The recipe

1 - 3 loaves
Prep10 min
Cook1 hr

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease two or three 9x5-inch loaf pans with a little of the shortening and dust them with flour.

  2. In a large bowl, cream the shortening and white sugar until smooth, then beat in the beaten eggs.

  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt.

  4. Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk, and mix until just combined.

  5. Fold in the chopped walnuts without overmixing, then divide the batter evenly among the prepared pans.

  6. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean and the loaves are golden on top.

  7. Cool the loaves in their pans for 10 minutes, then turn them out onto a rack to cool completely before slicing.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Sugar + creamtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together43,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Milk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together76,993 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + walnuttop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  4. Egg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together104,138 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together88,465 recipes

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

Milk and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 76,993 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, milk, flour, cream):

  1. Almondbetter flavor fit
  2. Chestnutabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Pecansabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, milk, flour, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).