Name: No-Bake Key Lime Pie
Yield: Serves 6-8
Ingredients: 1 2/3 cup almonds (blanched or un-blanched), ground to a fine powder in a blender or food processor (be careful not to over-process or you’ll end up with almond butter!); 3 tablespoons butter, melted; 3 tablespoons sugar; One 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk; One 8-ounce block cream cheese, room temperature (room temp is important so the filling isn’t lumpy); 1/2 cup key lime juice, fresh or bottled; 2 teaspoons fresh lime zest; 1 cup heavy or whipping cream; 3 tablspoons powdered sugar; 1 lime, sliced and zested, optional

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Almond + limetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together258 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Butter + cream cheesetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,747 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

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

Swap the lime

The recipe marks lime as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, butter, sugar, condensed milk, cream cheese, cream):

Vanillafits better
Coconutfits better
Strawberryfits better
Limethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, butter, sugar, condensed milk, cream cheese, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Cream Cheese	1 oz (28g)	99
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Lime	juice of 1 lime (44ml)	11
Almond	1 almond (1.2g)	7

No-Bake Key Lime Pie