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Bread

Graham Nut Bread

A sweet bread made with white and graham flour, walnuts, molasses, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Graham 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 ↓

Graham Nut Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Sift together white flour, graham flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

  2. Add chopped walnuts, beaten egg, molasses, and milk. Mix well.

Bake

  1. Turn the mixture into well-buttered tins.

  2. Let rise for 20 minutes.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.

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. Walnut + milktop 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

Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, lifting the loaf as it bakes.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture to the loaf.
Graham flour
Adds coarse bran and nutty flavour, giving the loaf a denser, heartier texture.
White flour
Provides gluten and structure to hold the loaf together.

The step that matters

Let rise for 20 minutes. Baking powder starts releasing gas as soon as it is wet, so the batter should go into the oven promptly after resting. Waiting too long lets bubbles escape, leaving a flatter, denser loaf.

Swap the walnut

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

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

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