Name: Walnut Wafers
Ingredients: ½ cup butter; 1 cup sugar; 1 tablespoon brandy; 2 eggs; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; ½ teaspoon cloves; ¼ teaspoon baking soda; 1 cup raisins; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Walnut Wafers

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix the butter and sugar until well combined.
Add the brandy, eggs, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda, raisins, and salt. Mix thoroughly.
Drop ½ teaspoon of the batter onto a greased baking pan, leaving space between each drop.
Bake until golden brown.
Let cool before serving.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Clove + raisintop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,070 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Brandy + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,768 recipes

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

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, brandy, egg, cinnamon, raisin):

Nutmegfits better
Clovethe original
Cardamomfits about as well
Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, brandy, egg, cinnamon, raisin. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.