Name: Almond Icings
Ingredients: 5 pounds cream; ½ pound chocolate; 8 pounds cream; 3 pounds almond nuts; 5 pounds white cream

Why it works: Almond and nuts work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 394 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Almond Icings

Ingredients

Directions

Dissolve 5 pounds of cream and pour it into a tray.
Melt ½ pound of chocolate in a basin.
Add 8 pounds of cream to the melted chocolate and stir in 3 pounds of almond nuts.
Pour the mixture onto the first layer and spread it evenly.
Melt 5 pounds of white cream and spread it over the last layer.
Finish as before.

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.

Almond + nutstop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together394 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Chocolate + almondtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,733 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Chocolate + nutstop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together440 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,466 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cream + almondtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,130 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Cream: Forms the smooth, soft body of the icing and carries the other layers.
Chocolate: Adds richness and a deep flavour that contrasts with the sweet cream.
Almond nuts: Add crunch and a nutty aroma that break up the smooth texture.
White cream: Forms the pale top layer and gives a mild, sweet finish.