Name: Pistachio Patties
Ingredients: 2 ounces pistachio nuts, ground very fine; cream

Why it works: Pistachio and nuts match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 425 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Pistachio Patties

Ingredients

2 ounces pistachio nuts, ground very fine
cream

Directions

Melt the cream in a saucepan over low heat.
Stir in the ground pistachio nuts until well combined.
Color the mixture a very delicate green.

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.

Pistachio + nutstop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together425 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Pistachio + creamtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together634 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Nuts + creamtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together886 recipes

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