Why it works: Walnut and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,149 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
To Dish Up Walnuts
Ingredients
Directions
Use a pair of nippers to crack the upper shell of the walnuts.
Remove the upper shell without damaging the other half.
Dip the exposed kernel into boiling water to remove the skin easily.
Transfer the walnuts to cold water mixed with lemon juice and a little coarse sea salt.
Let them steep in the water, then drain on a napkin.
Prepare a pasteboard stand with three or four raised tiers, each 1¼ inches high and deep, covered with green paper.
Use moss to secure the walnuts in position on the stand.
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 + lemontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,149 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
You might also like
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Lemon Ice147 recipes
Lemon Sherbet103 recipes
Lemon Custard64 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.