Name: Sand Tarts
Ingredients: 2 pounds granulated sugar; 2 pounds flour; 1½ pounds butter; 2 eggs, well beaten; milk (for washing the tops); sugar (for sprinkling); cinnamon (for sprinkling); chopped almonds or peanuts (for sprinkling)

Why it works: Cinnamon and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Sand Tarts

Ingredients

Directions

Rub the sugar and flour together until well combined.
Rub in the butter until the mixture is crumbly.
Add the beaten eggs and mix until combined.
Form the dough into a loaf and let it stand in a cool place overnight to harden.
Roll the dough very thin and cut out shapes.
Wash the tops with a mixture of milk and the yolk of an egg.
Sprinkle with sugar, cinnamon, and chopped almonds or peanuts.
Store in a tight tin box to keep fresh.

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.

Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,514 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,673 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,655 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).