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Pine Kernel Cream

A creamy sauce made by grinding pine kernels and a Brazil nut with lemon and orange juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Pine and brazil nut share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Pine Kernel Cream

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Grind the pine kernels and Brazil nut finely.

  2. Add lemon juice and orange juice until a creamy consistency is achieved.

  3. Beat thoroughly until well combined.

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.

  1. Pine + brazil nuttop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together22 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Pine + lemontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together480 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Brazil nut + orangetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Pine + orangetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together103 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Pine kernels
Their natural oils and starch give the cream its rich body and smooth texture.
Brazil nut
Adds extra fat that makes the cream richer and more velvety when ground.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and keeps the nut cream fresh-tasting.
Orange juice
Adds liquid and mild sweetness, helping the ground nuts loosen into a spreadable cream.

The step that matters

Adding the citrus juices. Add the juices gradually. Too much liquid at once thins the cream and can make it watery, while too little leaves it stiff and grainy.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pine, brazil nut, lemon):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Avocadofits about as well
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pine, brazil nut, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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