Why it works: Walnut and flour 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 ↓
Wat, Nut Sheet
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 the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix the brown sugar and beaten egg yolks.
Add the beaten egg whites to the mixture.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt, then add to the mixture.
Fold in the chopped walnuts, being careful not to chop them too fine.
Bake and serve
Pour the batter into a baking sheet and bake until set.
Let it cool in the tin before cutting into squares.
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.
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Walnut + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Walnut + meattop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,035 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Walnuts
- Provide the main texture and nutty flavour, giving the bars bite.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help it set into a firm, sliceable bake.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and a molasses-like depth of flavour.
- Flour
- Gives the batter enough structure to hold together when baked.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the bars rise slightly and turn lighter.
The step that matters
Fold in the walnuts gently. Chopping walnuts too fine releases oils and turns them to dust, so they lose their crunch and make the bars dense and gritty instead of chewy with visible nut pieces.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, sugar, egg, flour):
- Almondfits better
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Walnutthe original
- Pistachiofits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against meat, sugar, egg, flour. 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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