Name: French Walnut
Ingredients: French walnuts; vine leaves; water; white-wine vinegar; mutton fat

Why it works: Wine and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,493 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

French Walnut

Ingredients

Directions

Place vine leaves at the bottom of a pan and add the walnuts, covering them with more vine leaves.
Set the pan over a very slow fire until the skins peel off.
Carefully remove the walnuts using a hair sieve and peel them with a penknife.
Return the peeled walnuts to the pot with vine leaves and water, cover, and cook over a slow fire until they turn a fine green.
Drain the walnuts on a hair sieve and let them cool.
Once cool, place the walnuts in boiled white-wine vinegar.
Pour a little mutton fat on top, seal with a bladder and paper, and store in a dry place.

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.

Wine + vinegartop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,493 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Walnut + vinegartop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,769 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Walnut + muttontop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together163 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).
Vinegar + muttontop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together615 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).
Walnut + winetop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together489 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).