Name: Almond Caramel Baskets
Ingredients: picked almonds; cochineal (for coloring); butter; sugar

Why it works: Almond and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,245 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Almond Caramel Baskets

Ingredients

picked almonds
cochineal (for coloring)
butter
sugar

Directions

Blanch and slice the almonds into long pieces.
Color the almonds pink with cochineal in a small copper pan over gentle heat, stirring until dry.
Rub a sheet of copper or tin with a small amount of butter.
Arrange the pink almonds on the plate in the shape of half the desired mold, using a paper pattern for guidance.
Prepare sugar and spin it over the almonds until they are all coated and fixed.
Carefully turn the mold to release the almond basket.

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.

Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,245 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,679 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).