Name: Compote of Walnuts
Ingredients: new walnuts; lemon juice; reduced syrup (see recipe No. 400); whipped cream (see recipe No. 401); liqueur (optional)

Why it works: Walnut and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,149 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Compote of Walnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Slit the shells of the walnuts in half and remove the kernels carefully.
Peel the kernels without breaking them.
Soak the walnuts in iced water with lemon juice.
Just before serving, drain the walnuts and arrange them in an oval shape in a glass dish.
Pour the reduced syrup and whipped cream over the walnuts, adding liqueur if desired.

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 + lemontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,149 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Syrup + creamtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,964 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Lemon + syruptop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,235 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Walnut + creamtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,982 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Walnut + syruptop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together350 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).