Name: Chestnut Cream a LA Craven
Ingredients: 4 ounces French chestnut flour; 1½ cups milk; 1 tablespoon sugar; 1 tablespoon brandy; 1 tablespoon maraschino; ½ cup thick cream; preserved fruits (soaked in brandy and vanilla); ratafias or macaroons

Why it works: Chestnut and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 244 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Chestnut Cream a LA Craven

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the chestnut flour with ½ cup of cold milk to form a smooth paste.
Gradually add this mixture to 1½ cups of boiling milk and mix well.
Cook for about 10 minutes, then remove from heat.
Stir in the egg yolk, brandy, maraschino, and sweetened thick cream.
Once cool, color half of the mixture and layer it in a deep dish with the uncolored mixture.
Decorate the top with preserved fruits soaked in brandy and vanilla.
Use the soaking liquid to moisten ratafias or macaroons and arrange them around the base of 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.

Chestnut + vanillatop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together244 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,187 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Chestnut + flourtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together517 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Swap the chestnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, sugar, brandy, cream, vanilla):

Almondfits about as well
Chestnutthe original
Hazelnutfits less well
Pistachiofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, sugar, brandy, cream, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.