Name: Chop Suey Sundae
Ingredients: 5 lbs figs, chopped; 5 lbs dates, chopped; 2 lbs French cherries, chopped; 2 lbs English walnuts, chopped; chocolate syrup; vanilla syrup; ice cream

Why it works: Fig and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 324 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Chop Suey Sundae

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the topping

Chop the figs, dates, French cherries, and English walnuts into small pieces.
Combine the chopped fruits and nuts with enough chocolate syrup and vanilla syrup to achieve a consistency similar to crushed fruits.

Assemble and serve

In a sundae glass, fill three-fourths full with ice cream.
Top the ice cream with the chop suey mixture.

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.

Fig + vanillatop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together324 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Fig + datestop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together318 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
Fig + walnuttop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together373 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,020 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Dates + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together218 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Figs: Provide chewy texture and natural sweetness in the chopped fruit mixture.
Dates: Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness to the chop suey mixture.
English walnuts: Add crunch and a toasty, nutty flavour that contrasts the soft fruit.
Chocolate syrup: Adds sweetness and moisture so the chopped mixture becomes loose and spoonable.

Swap the dates

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fig, walnut, chocolate, syrup, vanilla, cream):

Coconutfits better
Cherryfits better
Pearfits better
Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fig, walnut, chocolate, syrup, vanilla, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.