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Nut Bread

A loaf of bread made with white and Graham flour, walnuts, raisins, molasses, sour milk, and sweeteners.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Nut Bread

Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 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 the batter

  1. Mix the white flour, Graham flour, chopped walnuts, raisins, molasses, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in a little hot water and add it to the sour milk.

  3. Pour the sour milk mixture into the flour mixture and stir until combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan.

  2. Bake in a preheated 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.

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 + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Raisin + molassestop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Walnut + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together647 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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 sour milk's acid to produce gas, helping the loaf rise.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds moisture and tenderness to the crumb.
White flour
Provides the main gluten structure that holds the loaf together.
Graham flour
Adds coarser bran and nutty flavour and a denser, heartier texture.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark colour and a rich, slightly bitter sweetness.
Walnuts
Add crunch and fat-driven richness throughout the loaf.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda and combining quickly. Baking soda releases gas as soon as it meets the acidic sour milk, so the batter should go into the pan promptly to trap that gas before it escapes, giving the loaf its lift.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, raisin, milk, molasses, 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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