Name: Geaham Cookies
Ingredients: 1 lb graham flour; 1 lb dates; 1 lb figs; a little salt; a little sugar; fruit juice (as needed)

Why it works: Dates and fig work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 318 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Geaham Cookies

Ingredients

Directions

Thicken cream with graham flour until stiff enough to roll.
Add a little salt and sugar.
Grind dates and figs together.
Thin the mixture with any fruit juice you have.
Spread the fruit mixture on rolled-out dough.
Place another layer of dough on top and cut into squares.

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.

Dates + figtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together318 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
Flour + figtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,192 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Fig + sugartop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,241 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Flour + datestop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together675 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).