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Nut Bread

Nut bread made with flour, baking powder, salt, lard, milk, and nuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Nut Bread

Why it works: Flour and nuts are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,180 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Nut Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.

  2. Add the lard and enough milk to form a stiff dough.

  3. Fold in the nuts until evenly distributed.

Rise and bake

  1. Let the dough rise for 20 minutes.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.

  3. Serve fresh, great for sandwiches.

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. Flour + nutstop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + nutstop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together982 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure of the bread as its proteins hydrate and set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough, helping the bread rise and become light.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and keeps the bread from being tough.
Nuts
Add texture and a toasty, rich flavor throughout the bread.

The step that matters

Adding the milk to form a stiff dough. Too little liquid leaves dry, crumbly bread that will not hold together, while too much makes a sticky dough that bakes up dense. Add milk gradually until the dough just holds its shape.

Swap the nuts

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Milletfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, 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.

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