Name: Finger Biscuits
Ingredients: Savoy biscuit paste; Sugar for sprinkling; Flavoring (Maraschino, rose-water, vanilla, orange-flower, or carraway seeds)

Why it works: Biscuit and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,874 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Finger Biscuits

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Savoy biscuit paste
Sugar for sprinkling
Flavoring (Maraschino, rose-water, vanilla, orange-flower, or carraway seeds)

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the Savoy biscuit paste.
Drop the paste onto sheets of paper in lengths.
Sift sugar over the biscuits.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden.
Optionally, flavor with your choice of Maraschino, rose-water, vanilla, or orange-flower, or sprinkle with carraway seeds.

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.

Biscuit + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,874 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Biscuit + rosetop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Sugar + rosetop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,584 recipes

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