Name: Black Walnut Fudge
Ingredients: vanilla fudge; large handful of black walnut meats

Why it works: Vanilla and walnut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,730 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Black Walnut Fudge

Ingredients

vanilla fudge
large handful of black walnut meats

Directions

Make a batch of vanilla fudge.
When the fudge is creamed and about to be poured, add the black walnut meats.
Stir the walnuts through the fudge.
Finish preparing the fudge as you normally would.

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.

Vanilla + walnuttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,730 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Walnut + meattop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,035 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Vanilla + meattop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together331 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).