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Dessert

Date Loaf

A loaf made with dates, sugar, butter, milk, and pecans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Date Loaf

Why it works: Pecans and dates share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Date Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 240°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Cook the mixture

  1. In a saucepan, combine sugar, butter, and milk.

  2. Cook over medium heat until it reaches the soft ball stage (about 240°F or 115°C).

  3. Remove from heat and beat until creamy.

Shape and slice

  1. Roll the mixture in a damp cloth.

  2. Allow to cool and slice when cold.

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. Pecans + datestop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together88 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  3. Butter + pecanstop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,416 recipes

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

  4. Milk + datestop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Milk + pecanstop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Provides sweetness and, as it concentrates during cooking, lets the mixture set firm when cooled.
Butter
Adds fat that softens the texture and gives a smoother mouthfeel.
Milk
Dissolves the sugar and adds liquid and creaminess to the mixture.

The step that matters

Cook to the soft ball stage. As water evaporates, sugar concentration rises, and the soft ball stage near 240°F sets the texture. Cooking too short leaves the mixture runny, while cooking too long makes it hard and grainy.

Swap the dates

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, pecans. 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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