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Bangor Brownies

A chocolate brownie with walnuts baked to a crisp top.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and walnut are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,548 recipes. Both carry 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine, which smells roasted, nutty. The science ↓

Bangor Brownies

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.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together until smooth.

  2. Add the eggs and mix well.

  3. Stir in the flour and melted chocolate until combined.

  4. Fold in the chopped walnuts.

Bake and cut

  1. Spread the mixture in a buttered pan to a thickness of ¼ inch.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) and watch carefully to prevent burning.

  3. Cut into squares while hot, as they will become crisp quickly.

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. Chocolate + walnuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Butter
Adds fat that makes the brownies rich and tender.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps it brown and set.
Eggs
Provide structure and bind the batter together.
Flour
Gives the brownies body so they hold their shape.
Bitter chocolate
Supplies the chocolate flavour and deep colour.
Walnuts
Add crunch and a nutty contrast to the soft batter.

The step that matters

Watch the bake carefully. Brownies can scorch quickly at the edges while the centre is still underbaked. Watching for doneness prevents burning and keeps the texture moist rather than dry.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, flour, chocolate):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Macadamia nutfits better
  3. Hazelnutfits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, flour, chocolate. 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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