Why it works: Flour and nuts are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,180 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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, sugar, chopped nuts, and salt.
In another bowl, beat the eggs and milk together.
Make and bake the batter
Combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and mix well.
Divide the batter into two greased loaf pans.
Bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
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.
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Flour + nutstop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,180 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Nuts + milktop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together982 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the bread as its proteins and starches set during baking.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, causing the loaf to rise.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, helping the loaf bind and set.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and helps hydrate the flour into a batter.
- Chopped nuts
- Add texture and a toasty, savory flavor to the crumb.
The step that matters
Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix well. Mixing develops gluten in the flour, which gives structure. Quick-rise batters with baking powder should be mixed only until combined, since overmixing can make the loaf tough and dense.
Swap the nuts
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, egg, milk):
- Almondfits better
- Milletfits better
- Chestnutfits better
- Nutsthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, egg, milk. 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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