Name: Minute Chocolate Walnut Jelly
Ingredients: hot milk; ½ cup walnut meats; 6 figs, finely chopped; whipped cream

Why it works: Walnut and fig match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 373 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Minute Chocolate Walnut Jelly

Ingredients

hot milk
½ cup walnut meats
6 figs, finely chopped
whipped cream

Directions

Pour hot milk into a bowl and let it cool.
When it starts to thicken, beat it until it forms stiff peaks.
Fold in the walnut meats and chopped figs.
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.

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 + figtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together373 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Milk + figtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,026 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Walnut + meattop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,035 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Milk + walnuttop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,236 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together29,399 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).