Name: Petits Fours
Ingredients: ½ cup egg whites; hostess sheets; copper sheet; orange flower water; almonds; pistachios

Why it works: Almond and pistachio match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 693 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Petits Fours

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough and brush it with egg whites.
Top with hostess sheets, then cover with a copper sheet to seal.
Cut while still warm and store in a dry place.
Add orange flower water when the dough is well mixed.
For a more delicate nougat, do not cook to the prescribed temperature.

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.

Almond + pistachiotop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together693 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Orange + almondtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,125 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Orange + pistachiotop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together328 recipes

Shared aroma: pinene (pine, turpentine).
Egg + almondtop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,645 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Egg + pistachiotop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together822 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).