Name: Honey Chocolates
Ingredients: 10 pounds sugar; 7 pounds honey; Water (to dissolve sugar and honey); 2 pounds ground pecans; 1/2 cup simple syrup; Extract of vanilla; Dark chocolate (for coating)

Why it works: Vanilla and chocolate are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Honey Chocolates

Ingredients

Directions

Dissolve sugar and honey in water and cook to 244°F (118°C).
Pour the mixture onto a dampened slab and let it cool slightly.
Once nearly cold, add ground pecans and cream, mixing well.
Melt the cream and stir in simple syrup and vanilla extract.
Shape the mixture into patties using starch, then let them cool.
Dip the cooled patties in dark chocolate to coat.

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.

Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,020 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Pecans + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,691 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together804 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla 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

Swap the pecans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, honey, syrup, vanilla, chocolate):

Almondfits better
Hazelnutfits better
Chestnutfits better
Pecansthe original

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