Name: Nut Loaf
Ingredients: 1 egg; 1 cup tomato pulp; 1 cup peanut meats; ½ cup walnut meats; ¼ cup butter or fat; 1 cup soft bread crumbs; ½ cup milk; Salt; Pepper

Why it works: Peanut and walnut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 241 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Nut Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Soak the bread crumbs in the milk for 30 minutes.
Add the beaten egg, softened butter, tomato pulp, nuts, salt, and pepper. Mix well and shape into a loaf.

Bake

Bake at 350°F (175°C).
Baste with melted butter, bacon, or pork fat.

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.

Peanut + walnuttop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together241 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,013 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together315 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

Egg: Binds the loaf so it holds its shape after baking.
Peanut meats: Provide the main body and nutty flavor of the loaf.
Walnut meats: Add more nutty flavor and texture to the loaf.
Soft bread crumbs: Absorb the milk and help give the loaf a tender, moist body.
Tomato pulp: Adds moisture and a slight acidity to the mixture.
Butter or fat: Adds richness and helps the surface brown during baking.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, peanut, meat, walnut, butter, bread, milk):

Potatofits better
Capsicumfits better
Asparagusfits better
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, peanut, meat, walnut, butter, bread, 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.