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Nut Loaf

A loaf made from bread crumbs, nuts, and vegetables, baked with butter and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Nut Loaf

Why it works: Sage and summer savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 237 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Nut Loaf

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 mixture

  1. Combine bread crumbs, parsley, salt, sage, black pepper, red pepper, summer savory, celery, and apple in a bowl.

  2. Melt butter in a saucepan.

  3. Fry onion until slightly brown.

  4. Pour the buttered onion over the bread crumb mixture and mix well.

  5. Beat eggs into milk and pour over the buttered crumbs; let stand for 10 minutes.

  6. Add ground nuts to the mixture and mix thoroughly.

Bake and serve

  1. Form the mixture into a loaf and place it in a buttered baking pan.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1.5 hours, basting frequently with hot water and butter.

  3. When done, it should be an even delicate brown.

  4. Make a gravy in the dripping pan after removing the loaf.

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. Sage + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together237 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together241 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Parsley + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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.
Bread crumbs
Form the bulk of the loaf and soak up the milk and butter for a moist texture.
Mixed nuts
Provide the main body, richness and nutty flavour of the loaf.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and helps the surface brown in the oven.
Milk
Moistens the crumbs so the loaf stays tender rather than dry.
Sour apple
Adds acidity and a fresh contrast to the rich nuts and butter.

The step that matters

Basting during the bake. Frequent basting with hot water and butter keeps the surface moist so it browns evenly rather than drying out or scorching over 1.5 hours.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, parsley, sage, pepper, summer savory, celery, butter):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Avocadofits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, parsley, sage, pepper, summer savory, celery, butter. 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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