Name: Cereal with Dates
Ingredients: cereal; chopped dates; cream; sugar

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 ↓

Cereal with Dates

Ingredients

cereal
chopped dates
cream
sugar

Directions

Fill a serving dish with alternate layers of cereal and chopped dates.
Ensure the top layer is dates.
Serve hot or cold with cream and sugar.

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.

Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Dates + sugartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together985 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Dates + creamtop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together276 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).