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Bread

Nut Bread

A moist bread made with all-purpose and graham flour, molasses, walnuts, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Nut Bread

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 ↓

Nut Bread

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 your oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Sift both flours into a mixing bowl.

  3. Add salt, chopped walnuts, and baking powder to the flours.

Make the batter

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg and then add it along with the molasses and milk to the dry ingredients. Mix well until combined.

  2. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and let it rise for 20 minutes.

Bake

  1. Bake in the preheated oven for about 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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. Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + walnuttop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,236 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  5. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure of the loaf as the gluten-forming flour.
Graham flour
Adds a coarser texture and nutty flavor while still contributing structure.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps give the loaf its set structure.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter to make the loaf rise.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and depth of flavor, and helps the crumb brown.
English walnuts
Add crunch and a rich, toasty flavor throughout the loaf.

The step that matters

Mixing the batter until combined. Once the liquids meet the flour, gluten begins to form, so mixing just until combined keeps the loaf tender. Overmixing makes it tough and dense.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, egg, milk, molasses):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Walnutthe original
  4. Nutsfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, milk, molasses. 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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