Name: Brioches Au Caramel Et Aux Noix
Ingredients: 5 pounds sugar; 1 pound shortening; 8 ounces honey or glucose; water (enough to make a spreadable mixture); butter (for brushing); granulated sugar (for sprinkling); chopped pecans; whole pecans (for garnish)

Why it works: Butter and pecans are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,416 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Brioches Au Caramel Et Aux Noix

Ingredients

Directions

Grease a baking pan generously and sprinkle the bottom with a fine layer of brown sugar.
Place small pieces of butter on top of the sugar layer.
In a bowl, beat together the sugar, shortening, and honey or glucose. Add enough water to make the mixture spreadable.
Roll out a piece of sweet dough into a thin sheet, brush with melted butter, and sprinkle with granulated sugar and chopped pecans.
Roll the dough into a long log and seal the opening carefully. Cut into desired-sized pieces.
Place the pieces in the prepared baking pan, close together.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden. If desired, brush with apricot syrup for shine.

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.

Butter + pecanstop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,416 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Honey + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,327 recipes

Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Honey + pecanstop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together273 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sugar + honeytop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,932 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).