Name: Walnut Creams
Ingredients: ¼ pound English walnuts; prepared sugar; chocolate (optional)

Why it works: Walnut and chocolate are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,548 recipes. Both carry 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine, which smells roasted, nutty. The science ↓

Walnut Creams

Ingredients

¼ pound English walnuts
prepared sugar
chocolate (optional)

Directions

Carefully remove the meat from the walnut halves.
Form small balls of prepared sugar.
Press half a walnut on each side of the sugar ball.
For date or prune creams, split the fruit, remove the stone, and place half on each side of the sugar ball.
Almonds and filberts can be covered with the sugar paste and dipped in chocolate or left plain.

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.

Walnut + chocolatetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,548 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).
Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,404 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Walnut + sugartop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,147 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

English walnuts: Provide the main flavour and a crisp, nutty contrast to the sugar.
Prepared sugar: Forms the sweet, soft centre that holds the nut halves together.