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Nut Loaf

Nut loaf is a baked loaf made from nuts, bread, butter, water, egg, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Nut Loaf

Why it works: Sage and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,445 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. 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

  1. Grind or chop the nuts very fine.

  2. Combine the ground nuts, broken bread, butter, boiling water, beaten egg, salt, pepper, and sage in a bowl. Mix the mixture well.

  3. Butter a pudding dish and cover the bottom with bread crumbs.

  4. Pour the nut mixture into the dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for one hour or until well done.

  2. Turn the loaf out onto a platter.

  3. Garnish with parsley or celery tops.

  4. Serve with cranberry 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.

  1. Sage + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Sage + cranberrytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together45 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Nuts
Form the main body of the loaf and give it a rich, substantial texture.
Broken bread
Absorbs liquid and binds the nuts so the loaf holds its shape.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a moister, more tender crumb.
Egg
Binds the mixture as it cooks and helps the loaf set.

The step that matters

Bake until well done. The loaf is held together by the egg and bread, which set only when fully heated through. Underbaking leaves a wet, crumbly center that falls apart when turned out.

Swap the nuts

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

  1. Walnutfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Beansfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, egg, pepper, sage, parsley, cranberry. 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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