Name: Cake Filling
Ingredients: ¼ pound walnuts, chopped; ½ cup sultana raisins; ¼ pound figs; 1 cup confectioners' sugar; 3 tablespoons milk

Why it works: Walnut and fig match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 373 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Cake Filling

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

Cover figs with boiling water and let stand for 5 minutes, then drain.

Make the filling

In a bowl, combine confectioners' sugar and milk; beat thoroughly.
Add the sugar mixture to the chopped walnuts, sultana raisins, and figs.
Mix well to create a rich, moist filling.

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.

Walnut + figtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together373 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Raisin + figtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together737 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Fig + milktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,026 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Walnut + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together647 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Walnuts: Add crunch and chopped texture that contrasts with the soft fruit.
Sultana raisins: Add chewiness and natural sweetness to the filling.
Figs: Add moisture, body and sweetness to the filling.
Confectioners' sugar: Dissolves into the milk to sweeten and thicken the filling.
Milk: Moistens the sugar so it blends smoothly into the fruit and nuts.