Name: Prune Rolls
Ingredients: ½ lb prunes; sugar (to taste); rolls dough (any good recipe); melted butter (or half lard); chopped almonds (optional)

Why it works: Butter and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,245 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Prune Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

Soak prunes overnight.
Stew prunes until very tender, then run through a colander to remove stones and skins.
If prunes are not sweet enough, add a little sugar.
Roll out the dough thin and cut with a biscuit cutter.
Dip each round in melted butter.
Place 1 large teaspoon of prunes on top of each biscuit.
Let the rolls rise until very light before baking.
Sprinkle chopped almonds over the top if desired.

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.

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 + almondtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,245 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,679 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).