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Bread

Brown Nut Bread

A loaf of 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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Why it works: Molasses and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Brown 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.

Make the batter

  1. Sift together the white flour, graham flour, salt, and baking soda.

  2. Add the sugar and chopped walnuts to the dry ingredients.

  3. Dissolve the molasses in the milk, then add to the mixture.

  4. Mix until combined and pour into a greased loaf pan.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 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.

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. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Walnut + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,236 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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 soda
Reacts with the molasses and acidity to lift the dense batter as it bakes.
Black molasses
Adds moisture, dark colour, and a deep sweetness with a slight acidity.
Graham flour
Provides the coarse, hearty body and wholesome texture of the loaf.
White flour
Gives structure so the loaf holds together with the heavier graham flour.
Milk
Hydrates the flours and helps form the crumb while adding tenderness.

The step that matters

Dissolve the molasses in the milk, then add to the mixture.. Molasses must be fully dissolved so it blends evenly; unevenly mixed molasses can leave dark streaks and uneven sweetness and rise. Baking soda is in the dry mix, so the batter should be mixed just until combined to keep the leavening active and the crumb tender.

Swap the walnut

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

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

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