Name: Chestnut Marguerites
Ingredients: ½ cup preserved chestnuts; ½ cup finely chopped candied cherries; ½ cup seeded raisins; cream icing; crackers

Why it works: Chestnut and raisin share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 65 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Chestnut Marguerites

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chestnuts

Press the preserved chestnuts through a sieve.

Make the filling

Soften the chopped candied cherries and seeded raisins in cream icing.

Assemble and serve

Spread the mixture between crackers for lunch or afternoon tea.

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.

Chestnut + raisintop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together65 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Chestnut + creamtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together643 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Raisin + creamtop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,642 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Preserved chestnuts: Form the bulk of the filling, giving it body and a mild, sweet flavor.
Candied cherries: Add sweetness, color and a soft, chewy texture to the filling.
Seeded raisins: Add sweetness and chewiness, softened by the icing into the filling.
Cream icing: Adds moisture and sweetness, softening the fruit and binding the filling together.
Crackers: Provide a crisp base that holds the filling and contrasts with its softness.