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Walnut Bread

A yeasted bread with walnuts and raisins, baked at 350°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Walnut 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 the dry ingredients

  1. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt.

  2. Mix the sifted dry ingredients.

  3. Add the chopped walnuts and raisins to half of the sifted flour. Mix the dry mixture.

Make the batter

  1. Gradually add the sugar to the beaten egg while continuing to beat.

  2. Add the milk.

  3. Combine this mixture with the remaining sifted flour.

  4. Stir in the raisins and walnuts.

  5. Let the batter stand for 20 minutes.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into well-greased pans.

  2. Bake for 60 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

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.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Raisin + walnuttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together647 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 of the bread as its proteins and starches set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, causing the bread to rise and become light.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness to the crumb.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and gives the batter its moisture and soft texture.
Walnuts
Add crunch and a nutty flavor that contrasts with the soft crumb.
Raisins
Add pockets of moisture and natural sweetness throughout the loaf.

The step that matters

Combine the mixtures gently. Stirring the batter too much after adding the flour develops gluten, which makes the bread tough and dense rather than tender. Mix only until the ingredients are just combined.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, raisin, sugar, egg, 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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