Name: Honey and Almond Paste
Ingredients: 1 lemon, juiced; 1 ounce almond oil; 1 tablespoon honey

Why it works: Lemon and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,655 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Honey and Almond Paste

Ingredients

1 lemon, juiced
1 ounce almond oil
1 tablespoon honey

Directions

Combine the lemon juice, almond oil, and honey in a bowl.
Beat the mixture until it forms a smooth paste.

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.

Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,655 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Almond + honeytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,069 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Lemon + honeytop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,707 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Almond oil: Provides fat that gives the paste a smooth, rich body.
Honey: Adds sweetness and helps bind the paste together.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness.