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Pecan Pie Bars

"These chewy pecan pie bars are a great snack, and fun for the whole family to prepare."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and pecans match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,408 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

The recipe

3 dozen bars
Prep15 min
Cook35 min

Ingredients

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

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 350°F (177°C) and grease a 13x9-inch baking pan.

  2. In a bowl, mix the flour and brown sugar. Cut in the butter or margarine until the mixture looks crumbly.

  3. Press the crumb mixture firmly and evenly into the bottom of the pan. Bake for 15 minutes until lightly golden.

  4. While the crust bakes, stir together the sweetened condensed milk, beaten eggs and lemon juice in a bowl until smooth.

  5. Stir in the chopped pecans, then pour the filling evenly over the hot crust.

  6. Bake for 20 minutes more, until the filling is set and the center reaches 160°F (71°C) on an instant-read thermometer.

  7. Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack, then cut into bars.

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. Butter + pecanstop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,408 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together122,858 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + condensed milktop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + eggtop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together118,511 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Butter + lemontop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together41,197 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Flour and butter share little aroma chemistry, yet 122,858 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 lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, pecans, condensed milk, egg):

  1. Vanillabetter flavor fit
  2. Coconutbetter flavor fit
  3. Raisinbetter flavor fit
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, pecans, condensed milk, 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).