Name: Petits Fours
Ingredients: 1 pound sugar; 3 ounces coffee (half Moka and half Martinique); ½ liter water; ½ pound cocoa (half Caracas and half Maragnan); strong green tea extract

Why it works: Coffee and cocoa work together. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 91 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Petits Fours

Ingredients

1 pound sugar
3 ounces coffee (half Moka and half Martinique)
½ liter water
½ pound cocoa (half Caracas and half Maragnan)
strong green tea extract

Directions

Dissolve 1 pound of sugar in the coffee infusion and heat to 39 degrees Celsius.
Remove from heat and let cool slightly, reserving some sugar for icing.
For mocha icing, use 3 ounces of coffee to liquefy the sugar.
For white chocolate, infuse ½ pound of cocoa in hot water and follow the same method as for the coffee.
For tea icing, cook sugar to a syrup and incorporate a strong green tea extract without boiling.

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.

Coffee + cocoatop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together91 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Coffee + green teatop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Sugar + coffeetop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,344 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + cocoatop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together956 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Cocoa + green teatop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1 recipe

Shared aroma: 3-ethylphenol (must).