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Lucky Stars

"Every year we host a New Year's Eve Party with a theme. Last year was "Starry, Starry Night". Everything (food, dress and decorations!) related to stars. This cookie was a hit with everyone. Try substituting pecans for the walnuts."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and walnut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 993 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓

The recipe

2 -3 dozen

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Almond + walnuttop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together993 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Flour + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together8,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Vanilla + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,198 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,031 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, vanilla, almond, egg):

  1. Chestnutabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Pecansabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Hazelnutabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, vanilla, almond, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).