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Dessert

Date Bread

A sweet bread made with dates, raisins, citron, cardamom, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Henrietta Latham Dwight · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 18 ingredients
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Date Bread

Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Date Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dates

  1. Break the dates apart, wash and drain them in a colander, shake them well, set in a warm place to dry.

  2. Stone and chop enough to make a cupful, and knead into a loaf of white bread just before setting to rise for the last time.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the butter and sugar together.

  2. Add the eggs well beaten.

  3. Add a few grains of cardamom.

  4. Add half a cupful of raisins seeded.

  5. Add a tablespoonful of citron cut fine, if liked.

  6. Add the milk and flour.

  7. Mix the ingredients.

Bake

  1. Bake in crusty bread pans or shallow pans, as convenient.

  2. Bake in a crusty bread pan in a good oven, not too quick, from twenty to twenty-five minutes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

946Calories
28 gProtein
32 gFat
137 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Henrietta Latham Dwight. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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.

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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Flour
Forms the structure of the bread as it sets and bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to the crumb.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy moisture throughout the loaf.
Cream of tartar
Reacts with soda to lift the dough and add a slight tang.

The step that matters

Bake in a good oven, not too quick. A moderate oven lets the loaf rise and set through the centre before the crust browns too deeply. A very hot oven can brown or crack the outside while the inside stays doughy.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Coconutfits less well
  4. Figfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, cream, milk, egg. 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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