Name: Nut Loaf
Ingredients: 1 cup mixed nuts; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 cup stale bread crumbs; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 egg; ½ teaspoon pepper; ⅓ cup boiling water; 1 tablespoon chopped parsley

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. 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

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make and shape the loaf

In a bowl, blend the mixed nuts, butter, stale bread crumbs, salt, egg, pepper, boiling water, and chopped parsley thoroughly.
Shape the mixture into a round loaf.

Bake and serve

Bake for 30 minutes.
Serve with celery sauce.

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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Mixed nuts + parsleytop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together13 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Mixed nuts: Provide the main body and rich flavor of the loaf.
Stale bread crumbs: Absorb moisture and help the loaf hold its shape.
Egg: Binds the mixture together so it sets when baked.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.

Swap the mixed nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, bread, egg, pepper, parsley):

Walnutfits better
Peasfits better
Chickpeafits better
Mixed nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, bread, egg, pepper, parsley. 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.