Name: Fruit Cream Bars
Ingredients: cream; nuts (e.g., almonds, or other nuts); icing sugar; assorted preserved fruits (e.g., glace cherries, figs, raisins); peel (optional)

Why it works: Fig and raisin work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 737 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Fruit Cream Bars

Ingredients

cream
nuts (e.g., almonds, or other nuts)
icing sugar
assorted preserved fruits (e.g., glace cherries, figs, raisins)
peel (optional)

Directions

When the cream is moderately soft, add the nuts and gently knead them in.
Roll or flatten the mixture to about ¾ inch thickness.
Cut into square or oblong pieces with a sharp knife.
Place the pieces to dry on a smooth surface or tray dusted with icing sugar.
Chop up assorted preserved fruits and mix them into the 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.

Fig + raisintop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together737 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Nuts + raisintop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together490 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Nuts + figtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together154 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).