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Spiced Macadamia Nuts

These nuts are a just-right combo of spice and sweetness, and are perfect with a glass of something cold.

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Why it works: Lime and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,491 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 6
Prep30 min
Cook30 min

Ingredients

Contains: 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 160°C (325°F) and line a baking tray with parchment paper.

  2. In a bowl, whisk together the lime juice, honey, sunflower oil, caster sugar, garam masala, chilli powder, sea salt and a good grinding of black pepper.

  3. Add the macadamia nuts to the bowl and toss until every nut is evenly coated.

  4. Spread the nuts in a single layer on the prepared tray.

  5. Roast for 15 minutes, then stir the nuts and roast for 10 to 15 minutes more, until glossy and golden.

  6. Leave the nuts on the tray to cool for about 20 minutes, where they will crisp up, then serve or store in an airtight container.

By bbcfood. 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. Lime + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,491 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Sunflower + limetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together200 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Sunflower + honeytop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together224 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Sunflower + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together568 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Lime + honeytop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together679 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the lime

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sunflower, sugar, pepper, honey):

  1. Lemonabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Mangoabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Limethe original
  4. Grapeabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against sunflower, sugar, pepper, honey. 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).