Why it works: Sugar and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,212 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Fried Puffs with Sweetmeats
Ingredients
Directions
Roll out the puff pastry to ½ inch thick.
Cut the pastry into 3-inch wide slips, then into square pieces.
Place a small amount of sweetmeat on each square.
Fold the pastry over and seal the edges with a jagged cutter or sharp knife.
Heat the lard in a deep pan until boiling.
Fry the puffs until they are a light golden color.
Drain the puffs on paper towels and serve dusted with sifted sugar and orange marmalade on the side.
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.
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Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and orange barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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
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