Name: Dessert of Chestnuts
Ingredients: large chestnuts; water; sugar; heavy cream

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Dessert of Chestnuts

Ingredients

large chestnuts
water
sugar
heavy cream

Directions

Boil the chestnuts in water until you can pierce them with a fork.
Boil the chestnuts in a mixture of sugar and water, removing any scum.
Leave the chestnuts in the syrup until cold.
Skim the chestnuts out and arrange them on a dish.
Return the syrup to the heat and boil it down until thick.
Pour the thick syrup over the chestnuts.
Whip the cream and serve it cold alongside the chestnuts.

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.

Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Chestnut + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together647 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Chestnut + creamtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together643 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).