Name: Cream Dates
Ingredients: ½ pound fresh dates; cream (as directed for chocolate creams)

Why it works: Cream and chocolate are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,466 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cream Dates

Ingredients

½ pound fresh dates
cream (as directed for chocolate creams)

Directions

Prepare cream according to the recipe for chocolate creams.
Remove the stones from the dates.
Fill the centers of the dates with the prepared cream.

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 + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,466 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Dates + chocolatetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together86 recipes

Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
Dates + creamtop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together276 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).