Name: Sweet Nut Sandwiches
Ingredients: good figs; hot water; 1 tablespoon nut butter (walnuts, hickory nuts, or pecans); thin slices of brown bread

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Sweet Nut Sandwiches

Ingredients

good figs
hot water
1 tablespoon nut butter (walnuts, hickory nuts, or pecans)
thin slices of brown bread

Directions

Wash the figs thoroughly and grind them using a nut mill.
Add enough hot water to the ground figs to make a spreadable mixture.
In a bowl, combine 1 cup of the fig mixture with 1 tablespoon of nut butter and mix well.
Spread the mixture onto thin squares of brown bread.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Fig + breadtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together374 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Fig + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,042 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).