Name: Chestnuts
Ingredients: fine chestnuts (preferably from Lyons, France); boiling water; syrup (sugar and water mixture)

Why it works: Syrup and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Chestnuts

Ingredients

fine chestnuts (preferably from Lyons, France)
boiling water
syrup (sugar and water mixture)

Directions

Remove the outer skin from the chestnuts.
Blanch the chestnuts in boiling water until a needle can easily pass through them.
Remove the inner yellow skin and place the chestnuts in warm water.
Drain the chestnuts and put them into syrup, simmering gently until the syrup thickens without boiling.
Remove the chestnuts, drain them in a sieve, and boil some syrup to the 'Blow' stage in a small pan.
Before the syrup cools, dip the chestnuts with a fork and place them on trays to dry in a warm oven.

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.

Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Chestnut + syruptop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together87 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Chestnut + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together647 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).