Why it works: Peanut and olive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,027 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓
Peanut Butter
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Clean most of the hulls from the peanuts by rubbing them in your hands.
Place the nuts in a food chopper with the finest knife or use a mortar.
Grind and mix
Grind the nuts until smooth.
Add salt and oil, and mix well until combined.
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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Peanut + olivetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,027 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Peanuts
- Their oils and solids form the paste, and grinding releases the oil that makes it smooth.
- Olive oil or butter
- Adds fat that loosens the paste and makes it smoother and easier to spread.
- Salt
- Enhances the roasted peanut flavor and balances its richness.
The step that matters
Grind the nuts until smooth. Grinding too briefly leaves a grainy texture, while overheating from long grinding can make the paste oily or bitter. Stop when the paste is smooth and spreadable.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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