Name: Walnut Bread
Ingredients: two cups milk; four cups flour; two teaspoons salt; one cup english wal- nuts; one-half cup sugar; four teaspoons

Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 76,993 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

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

Also mentioned in the method: egg

Directions

Mix and rest

Combine two cups milk, four cups flour, four teaspoons Royal Baking Powder (not heaping), two teaspoons salt, one cup English walnuts, and one-half cup sugar.
Pour the mixture into a pan and let stand for twenty minutes.

Bake

Bake for one hour.

By United Methodist Church (Grayville, Ill.). 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. See the original page.

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.

Milk + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together76,993 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + nutstop 9% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together982 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Milk + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together77,855 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour + nutstop 10% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together1,167 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 10% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together89,462 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour: Provides the structure that holds the bread together as it sets.
Baking powder (in the method): Releases gas during baking so the bread rises and becomes light.
Milk: Adds moisture and helps form a tender crumb.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown.
English walnuts: Add texture and a nutty flavor to the crumb.

“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.