Name: Lemon Fig Bon-bons
Ingredients: chopped figs; bon-bon cream; lemon flavoring; Bur- nett's Golden Yellow Paste (for coloring); English walnuts or pecans (for garnish)

Why it works: Fig and walnut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 373 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Lemon Fig Bon-bons

Ingredients

Directions

Mix chopped figs with bon-bon cream to create centers.
Shape the mixture into oblong pieces.
Coat each piece with bon-bon cream flavored with lemon and colored yellow.
Ensure the coating is a deep shade of yellow for visibility.
Garnish each bon-bon with an English walnut or pecan immediately after coating.

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.

Fig + walnuttop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together373 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Lemon + walnuttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,149 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Fig + lemontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together763 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Cream + walnuttop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,982 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Fig + creamtop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together523 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).