Why it works: Nuts and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,228 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Burnt Filbert Prawlongs, Red
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Crack the Barcelona nuts and place the kernels in a copper pan.
Roast the nuts in a 350°F (175°C) oven.
In a separate pan, boil sugar until it reaches a caramel stage.
Dissolve a little cochineal in a cup and add it to the boiled sugar along with the roasted filberts.
Stir with a large wooden spoon until the sugar hardens around the nuts.
Use a sieve to separate any nuts that stick together.
Repeat the boiling process with more sugar and cochineal for a second coating, mixing as before.
Store the finished pralines in a box.
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.
-
Nuts + sugartop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,228 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.