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Bread

Nut Bread, for Sandwiches

A nut-filled loaf made with flour, sugar, milk, egg, baking powder, salt, and chopped nuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and nuts are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,180 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Nut Bread, for Sandwiches

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. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

  3. In another bowl, beat the egg and mix in the milk.

Make the batter

  1. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

  2. Fold in the chopped nuts.

  3. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan.

Bake

  1. Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

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 + nutstop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + nutstop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together982 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the loaf as its proteins and starches set in the oven.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets during baking.
Granulated sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.
Milk
Adds moisture and hydrates the flour to form the batter.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the loaf rise in the oven.
Nuts
Add texture and a toasty, rich flavor throughout the loaf.

The step that matters

Stir the wet and dry ingredients only until just combined. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, which makes the loaf tough and dense. Stopping once the streaks disappear keeps the crumb tender.

Swap the nuts

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Milletfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

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