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Dessert

Nut Bread

Nut Bread is a sweet bread made with eggs, sugar, nuts, milk, flour, baking powder, salt, and vanilla.

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

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. 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.

Mix the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine the egg, baking powder, sugar, nut meats, sweet milk, salt, and flour.

  2. Add vanilla to taste and mix until well combined.

  3. Let the mixture stand for 20 minutes before baking.

Bake

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and bake for 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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Flour
Provides the starch and gluten-free structure that sets the loaf as it bakes.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness as it sets.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the loaf rises and becomes light.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.
Nut meats
Add texture and a rich, nutty flavor throughout the loaf.
Sweet milk
Hydrates the flour and gives the batter its moisture and tenderness.

The step that matters

Let the mixture stand for 20 minutes before baking. Standing lets the flour fully hydrate and the baking powder begin to work, so the batter holds its volume and the loaf bakes up evenly rather than collapsing or turning dense.

Swap the vanilla

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

  1. Raisinfits about as well
  2. Vanillathe original
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, meat, milk, 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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