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Dessert

Nut Loaf

A sweet loaf made with eggs, sugar, milk, flour, baking powder, salt, and chopped nuts.

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

Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Nut Loaf

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.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the egg in a bowl.

  2. Add the sugar and mix well.

  3. Stir in the sweet milk.

  4. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt, then add to the mixture.

  5. Fold in the chopped nut meats.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a well-greased pan.

  2. Let it rise for 25 minutes.

  3. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C) and cover the pan with paper for the first 20 minutes.

  4. Bake for about 1 hour.

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. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + meattop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,703 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Milk and flour 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

Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the loaf rise and become light.
White flour
Forms the main structure of the loaf as its starches set when baked.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.
Sweet milk
Hydrates the flour and adds moisture and richness to the batter.
Nut meats
Add texture and a rich, toasty flavour to the loaf.

The step that matters

Cover the pan for the first 20 minutes. Covering the loaf with paper at the start of baking traps moisture and slows surface browning, so the centre can set before the crust darkens.

“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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