Name: Food for the Gods
Ingredients: ½ pound English walnuts; ¼ pound dates, finely chopped; 3½ tablespoons cracker crumbs; 1 cup granulated sugar; 3 eggs, beaten separately; 1 teaspoon baking powder

Why it works: Walnut and dates work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 302 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Food for the Gods

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

Make the batter

In a bowl, mix the dates and walnuts with the sugar.
Add the cracker crumbs and then the beaten eggs.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish.

Bake and serve

Bake for 30 minutes.
Let cool, then cut into squares and serve with whipped 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Walnut + datestop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together302 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Dates + sugartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together985 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Dates + eggtop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together737 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Walnut + eggtop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,037 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).