Why it works: Butter and pecans are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,416 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Salt Pecans No. 2
Ingredients
Directions
Heat Konut in a kettle until hot.
Add pecans and stir gently, roasting them until they are brittle.
Pour the pecans into a sieve to drain off excess fat.
Spread the pecans on a cold surface to cool quickly.
Salt the pecans carefully, as they hold more salt due to their creases.
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.
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Butter + pecanstop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,416 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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