Name: Compote of Filberts
Ingredients: fresh-gathered filberts; lemon juice; thick syrup; noyeau

Why it works: Lemon and syrup are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,235 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Compote of Filberts

Ingredients

fresh-gathered filberts
lemon juice
thick syrup
noyeau

Directions

Crack the shells and carefully remove the kernels from the filberts.
Place the kernels on a dish and squeeze a few drops of lemon juice over them.
Let the filberts sit for 1-2 hours.
Drain the nuts to remove excess juice.
Arrange the filberts in a pyramid shape in a compote dish.
Pour thick syrup flavored with noyeau over the arranged filberts and serve.

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.

Lemon + syruptop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,235 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Filbert + lemontop 34% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together34 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Filbert + syruptop 38% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8 recipes