Name: Walnut Bread
Ingredients: 3½ cups flour; 3½ teaspoons baking powder; ¼ teaspoon salt; ½ cup sugar; 1 cup milk; 1 cup walnuts, chopped; 1 egg

Why it works: Flour and walnut are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,873 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Walnut Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar.
Add the milk, walnuts, and egg to the dry ingredients and stir until combined.
Let the mixture sit in a warm place for 15 minutes.

Bake

Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and bake for 40 minutes.

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.

Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,873 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + walnuttop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,236 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

Flour: Forms the structure of the loaf as its starches set during baking.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter so the loaf rises and becomes light.
Egg: Binds the batter and helps set the crumb as it bakes.
Milk: Adds moisture and hydrates the flour to form the batter.
Walnuts: Add texture and a nutty flavor throughout the loaf.