Name: Chestnut Stuffing
Ingredients: 30 good-sized chestnuts; 2 ounces white bread crumbs; 3 ounces finely chopped veal suet; 2 eggs; 1 teaspoon salt; a dust of mignonette pepper; ¼ teaspoon sugar; milk (for simmering)

Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Chestnut Stuffing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chestnuts

Peel and scald the chestnuts, then remove the red skin.
Simmer the chestnuts in milk until tender. Alternatively, roast the chestnuts.

Make the stuffing

Pound the chestnuts with the bread crumbs moistened with the chestnut boilings.
In a bowl, mix the chestnut puree with the veal suet and beaten eggs.
Season with salt, mignonette pepper, and sugar.

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.

Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Chestnut + peppertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together826 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Chestnut + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together191 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Chestnuts: Form the bulk of the stuffing and give it its main flavor and body.
Bread crumbs: Absorb moisture and help bind the pounded chestnuts into a cohesive mixture.
Veal suet: Adds fat and richness, keeping the stuffing moist and tender as it cooks.
Eggs: Bind the mixture together and help it set when cooked.

Swap the chestnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, veal, egg, pepper, sugar, milk):

Peasfits about as well
Chestnutthe original
Walnutfits about as well
Cocoafits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, veal, egg, pepper, sugar, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.