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Bread

Prune Bran Loaf

A moist loaf made with butter, sugar, egg, sour milk, flour, bran, and prunes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Prune Bran Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  2. Add the beaten egg and beat until light.

  3. Sift the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together.

  4. Add the sifted mixture alternately with the sour milk to the creamed mixture.

  5. Next, add the prunes and beat for one minute.

Bake

  1. Bake in a greased and flour-dusted loaf pan for about 45 minutes.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air and give the loaf a tender, rich crumb.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness as it is beaten light.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the loaf rise in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas and lift the batter.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds moisture and tenderness.
Bran
Adds fiber-rich body and a coarse, hearty texture to the crumb.

The step that matters

Adding the flour mixture alternately with the sour milk. Overmixing once flour meets liquid develops gluten, making the bread tough and dense. Mix just until combined, then add the prunes gently so the batter stays light and even.

“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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