Name: Pecan Cream Date Glaces
Ingredients: 1 lb pecans; 3 lbs bonbon cream; vanilla flavor; 4 lbs sugar; a pinch of cream of tartar; water (to dissolve sugar); ½ lb glucose

Why it works: Pecans and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,691 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Pecan Cream Date Glaces

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 290°F (143°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

Grind the pecans and knead them into the bonbon cream.
Add vanilla flavor and roll the mixture into small balls.
Stuff each ball into a date, shaping it to show the cream in the opening.

Make the syrup

In a saucepan, cook the sugar with a pinch of cream of tartar and enough water to dissolve it until it reaches 290°F (143°C).
Add the glucose and continue cooking until it reaches 300°F (149°C).
Remove from heat.

Dip and cool

Dip each date in the syrup one at a time using a fork.
Place the dipped dates on a greased surface to cool.

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.

Pecans + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,691 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together12,301 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Pecans + creamtop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together706 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Vanilla and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Pecans: Add nutty flavor and a crunchy, textured contrast to the soft cream filling.
Bonbon cream: Forms the soft, sweet filling that holds the date shape together.
Sugar: Forms the syrup that sets into a crisp coating when cooled.
Glucose: Inhibits sugar crystallization, keeping the syrup smooth and less grainy.

The step that matters

Cooking the syrup to 300°F (149°C). Sugar syrup must reach the correct temperature to set firm when cooled. Too low and the coating stays sticky; too high and it turns brittle or darkens. Watching the thermometer keeps the coating in the right range.