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Nut Loaf

A loaf made of fondant and mixed nuts, candied fruit, optionally coated in chocolate or rolled in sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Nut Loaf

Why it works: Almond and brazil nut share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Nut Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine the fondant with the blanched almonds, pecans, hickory nuts, English walnuts, filberts, and Brazil nuts.

  2. Cut the nuts into small pieces, but do not chop them.

  3. Add the candied cherries, citron, and candied orange peel for decoration.

Shape and finish

  1. Mould the mixture into a loaf shape.

  2. If desired, cover the loaf with chocolate.

  3. If not covering with chocolate, press some nuts, cherries, and orange peel on top, then roll the loaf in coarse granulated sugar.

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. Almond + brazil nuttop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together68 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Walnut + brazil nuttop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together66 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Almond + walnuttop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together993 recipes

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

  4. Pecans + brazil nuttop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together40 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Pecans + walnuttop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together634 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

Fondant
Binds the nuts together and sweetens the loaf, holding its shape when moulded.
Blanched almonds
Add crunch and a mild nutty flavour to the soft fondant.
Pecans
Add crunchy texture and rich, buttery nut flavour.
English walnuts
Add crunchy texture and a slightly bitter, earthy nut flavour.
Candied cherries
Add sweetness, chewy texture and bright colour for decoration.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, pecans, nuts, walnut, filbert, brazil nut, sugar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, pecans, nuts, walnut, filbert, brazil nut, sugar. 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.

More nut loaf recipes

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