Name: Nut Loaf
Ingredients: 2 cups soft bread crumbs; 1 egg; 1 cup milk; 1 teaspoon Kitchen Bouquet; 2 cups chopped nuts; ½ teaspoon pepper; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 tablespoon butter or drippings

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Nut Loaf

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

Soak the bread crumbs in milk until soft.
Add the egg, Kitchen Bouquet, chopped nuts, pepper, salt, and butter or drippings.
Pour the mixture into a bread pan.

Bake and serve

Baste with water or drippings.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for one hour.
Serve hot or cold with tomato sauce.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Bind the crumbs and nuts so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.
Soft bread crumbs: Absorb the milk and add bulk, giving the loaf a tender, moist crumb.
Chopped nuts: Provide the main body, richness and texture of the loaf.
Milk: Softens the bread crumbs and adds moisture to the mixture.