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Date Bread

A sweet loaf made with dates, eggs, sugar, flour, milk, baking powder, and walnuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Date Bread

Why it works: Dates and walnut work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 302 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Date 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Remove the pits from the dates and chop them.

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix the dates, eggs, sugar, flour, milk, and baking powder until well combined.

  2. Let the mixture stand for 10 minutes.

  3. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan.

Bake

  1. Bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

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. Dates + walnuttop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together302 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Dates + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

Flour
Forms the main structure that holds the loaf together as it sets.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set firm while adding moisture and richness.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, lifting the loaf so it rises and becomes light.
Dates
Add natural sweetness and moisture that keep the crumb soft.
Sugar
Sweetens the bread and helps keep the crumb tender and moist.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and adds moisture for a tender, evenly baked crumb.

The step that matters

Bake until a toothpick comes out clean. Date batters are wet and dense, so the outside can brown before the center sets. Testing the center with a toothpick confirms the crumb is fully cooked rather than gummy.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Pecansfits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against dates, egg, sugar, 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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