Why it works: Walnut and olive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,087 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓
Neufchatel Cheese Molded with Nuts
Ingredients
Directions
In a bowl, combine melted butter, sweet cream, and red pepper.
Add the chopped walnuts or pecans (or olives and pimentos) and mix well.
Press the mixture into an oval shape on a serving dish.
Serve with vegetable salad (celery, tomato, or lettuce) and crackers.
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.
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Walnut + olivetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,087 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Pepper + olivetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,263 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Pepper + walnuttop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,039 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + walnuttop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,832 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cream, pepper, olive):
- Almondfits about as well
- Walnutthe original
- Beansfits about as well
- Pistachiofits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, pepper, olive. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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