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Peanut Loaf

A baked loaf made from ground peanuts, bread crumbs, rolled rice, tomatoes, egg, onion, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Peanut and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 670 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Peanut 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Shape the loaf

  1. In a large bowl, mix together the ground peanuts, bread crumbs, rolled rice, tomatoes, egg, chopped onion, salt, and pepper.

  2. Mold the mixture into a loaf shape.

Bake

  1. Place the loaf in a baking dish and bake for 30 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.

  1. Peanut + ricetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together670 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  2. Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Peanut + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,043 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Ground peanuts
Provide the main body and rich, nutty flavor of the loaf.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help the loaf hold its shape.
Rolled rice
Adds bulk and a tender, starchy texture to the loaf.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and a mild acidity to the mixture.
Egg
Binds the ingredients together as it sets during baking.

The step that matters

Mold the mixture into a loaf shape. The mixture is held together only by the egg and crumbs, so it should be packed firmly and evenly. Loose packing can cause the loaf to crumble or bake unevenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peanut, bread, rice, tomato, egg, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peanut, bread, rice, tomato, egg, pepper. 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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