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Bread

Nut Brown Bread

A loaf of bread made with graham and white flour, nuts, raisins, dates, molasses, and sour milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Nut Brown Bread

Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Nut Brown Bread

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

  1. Mix graham flour, white flour, salt, brown sugar, nut meats, raisins, and dates in a bowl.

  2. In a separate bowl, dissolve baking soda in hot water and add molasses and sour milk.

  3. Combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients until well mixed. Do not make the mixture too stiff.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 45 minutes.

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 + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Raisin + molassestop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Raisin + datestop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together358 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Graham flour
Provides the bulk and the coarse, hearty texture of the loaf.
White flour
Adds gluten structure so the loaf holds its shape with the bran-rich graham flour.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk and molasses to release gas, so the loaf rises.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds tenderness and moisture.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a dark color and flavor to the crumb.
Dates
Add moisture and natural sweetness, keeping the loaf soft.

The step that matters

Combine the wet and dry ingredients without overmixing. Stirring only until combined keeps gluten development limited, so the loaf stays tender rather than tough. Keeping the batter soft also lets the baking soda gas expand freely during baking.

Swap the dates

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, meat, raisin, molasses, 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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