Name: Butternut, White Walnut
Ingredients: Fresh inner bark of white walnut (any convenient quantity); Boiling water (enough to cover the bark); Sugar or molasses (to make a syrup); Proof spirits (one third the quantity of syrup)

Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Butternut, White Walnut

Ingredients

Fresh inner bark of white walnut (any convenient quantity)
Boiling water (enough to cover the bark)
Sugar or molasses (to make a syrup)
Proof spirits (one third the quantity of syrup)

Directions

Beat the fresh inner bark with a hammer until soft.
Pack the bark closely into an earthen vessel.
Pour boiling water over the bark to cover it completely.
Place the vessel over gentle heat and let it simmer for 1 to 2 hours.
Strain off the liquid and add enough sugar or molasses to make a syrup.
Bottle the syrup and add one third the quantity of proof spirits to preserve it.

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 + syruptop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Spirit + syruptop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together141 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + spirittop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together602 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Walnut + sugartop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,147 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Walnut + spirittop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together26 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).