Name: How We Cook in Tennessee
Ingredients: one pint of cream very stiff; one teaspoon of salt; two tablespoonfuls of chocolate; 75 brown bread sandwich; half pound of chopped nuts; half cup sugar; one chooses; one; three fresh mint leaves

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

How We Cook in Tennessee

Ingredients

Directions

Cut very thin slices of Boston brown bread in any shape desired.
Whip one pint of cream very stiff, then stir in one teaspoon of salt and half pound of chopped nuts.
Spread on the thin slices of bread.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

710Calories

15 gProtein

15 gFat

125 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 7 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Chocolate	1 oz (28g) semisweet	155
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Nuts	not in our table	0
Peppermint	not in our table	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Jackson (Tenn.). First Baptist Church. The Silver Thimble Society. 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. See the original page.

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.

Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Chocolate + nutstop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together440 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,466 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,404 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Bread + minttop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together244 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Cream: Whipped to stiff peaks, it gives the filling its light, airy body.
Chopped nuts: Add crunch and richness to the cream filling.

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, chocolate, bread, nuts, sugar):

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegfits better
Gingerfits better
Mintthe original

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

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.