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Bread

Nut Bread

A loaf of whole wheat bread studded with walnuts, sweetened with sugar and milk.

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

Why it works: Wheat and walnut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 246 recipes. Both carry 1-hexanal, which smells fruit. The science ↓

Nut 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.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg and mix in the sugar and sweet milk.

  2. In another bowl, combine the whole wheat flour, baking powder, and salt.

  3. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until combined.

  4. Fold in the walnut meats.

  5. Let the dough rise for 30 minutes.

Bake

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

  2. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and bake for 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. Wheat + walnuttop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together246 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  2. Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  3. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Walnut + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,035 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
Whole wheat flour
Forms the main structure of the loaf and gives it a nutty, hearty texture.
Baking powder
Releases gas that lifts the batter so the loaf rises and becomes lighter.
Walnut meats
Add crunch and a rich, nutty flavour throughout the bread.

The step that matters

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Stirring gently until just combined keeps the batter light. Overmixing develops gluten and gas escapes, which can leave the loaf dense and tough.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Almondfits about as well
  2. Walnutthe original
  3. Chestnutfits less well
  4. Milletfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, milk, wheat, flour, meat. 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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