Why it works: Rose and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,067 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓
Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Allow the pie to cool nearly completely.
Add sugar, rose water, and nutmeg to taste.
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.
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Rose + nutmegtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,067 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Sugar + nutmegtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together23,364 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Sugar + rosetop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,584 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 23,364 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, rose):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegthe original
- Allspicefits about as well
- Gingerfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, rose. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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