Name: Macaroons of Nuts
Ingredients: 1 cup hickory nuts, ground; ¼ teaspoon nutmeg; ¼ teaspoon allspice; Butter for greasing

Why it works: Nutmeg and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,331 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Macaroons of Nuts

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

1 cup hickory nuts, ground
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon allspice
Butter for greasing

Directions

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

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the mixture

In a bowl, combine the ground hickory nuts, nutmeg, and allspice.
Make a frosting as you would for a cake, then stir in the nut mixture.

Shape and bake

Butter your hands and shape the mixture into small balls, about the size of hickory nuts.
Place the balls on buttered baking sheets and bake until golden.

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.

Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,331 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Nuts + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together239 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together24,377 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Nuts + allspicetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together89 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Nuts + buttertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,291 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Hickory nuts: Form the main body of the macaroons and supply their rich, nutty flavor.
Nutmeg: Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor to the nut mixture.
Allspice: Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavor that complements the nuts.