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Dessert

Nut Squares

Nut Squares are a baked dessert made with eggs, brown sugar, flour, nuts, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,341 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Nut Squares

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. Beat the eggs until light.

  2. Add the brown sugar and beat for 2 minutes.

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

  4. Add the sifted mixture to the egg mixture along with the nutmeats.

Bake and cut

  1. Place the dough in a greased and flour-dusted pan.

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

  3. Remove from the oven and cut into squares.

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. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Eggs
Provide structure and moisture, and bind the batter together as it bakes.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture and a chewy, soft texture to the squares.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the squares together once baked.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the squares rise and become lighter.
Nutmeats
Add crunch and a nutty flavour that contrasts with the soft crumb.
Cinnamon
Adds warm aroma and spice to the sweet batter.

The step that matters

Bake until done. The centre must fully set while the outside is not overbrowned. Underbaked batter stays wet and gummy, while overbaking dries the squares and makes them crumbly.

Swap the cinnamon

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

  1. Jalapenofits about as well
  2. Cinnamonthe original
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour. 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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