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Nut Bread

Nut Bread is a loaf made from bread sponge, milk, sugar, butter, eggs, cinnamon, and chopped nuts.

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

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 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.

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, mix the bread sponge, milk, sugar, butter, eggs, and cinnamon to form a soft dough.

  2. Let the dough rise until light.

Shape and bake

  1. Fold in the chopped nuts and let it rise again.

  2. Mould the dough into 2 loaves.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until light.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Bread sponge
Provides the yeast-leavened base that makes the dough rise and gives it its bread texture.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the dough hold its shape and bake tender.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the dough and helps browning.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and feeds the yeast, aiding rise and browning.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and richer flavour.
Chopped nuts
Add crunch, flavour and richness throughout the loaf.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until light. Rising develops the gas bubbles that give the loaf its airy crumb. Under-proofed dough bakes dense, while over-proofed dough can collapse or lose structure, so the dough should be checked by its lightness rather than the clock.

Swap the nuts

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Pecansfits better
  3. Walnutfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, sugar, butter, egg, cinnamon. 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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