Name: English Walnut Butter-Cups
Ingredients: 3 pounds chopped English walnut meats; red or rose food coloring; 2 drops oil of rose

Why it works: Walnut and meat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,035 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

English Walnut Butter-Cups

Ingredients

3 pounds chopped English walnut meats
red or rose food coloring
2 drops oil of rose

Directions

Color the outside of the candy red or rose.
Flavor the mixture with 2 drops of oil of rose.
Combine the chopped walnuts with the colored mixture.
Shape the mixture into cups and allow to cool on a marble surface.
Ensure the mixture is not too hot to maintain gloss.

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.

Walnut + meattop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,035 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Walnut + rosetop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Meat + rosetop 36% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together46 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).