Why it works: Coconut and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,093 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓
Wine Biscuits
Ingredients
Directions
Cream the butter and sugar together.
Beat in the eggs until well combined.
Add flour gradually and mix to form a paste.
Roll out the paste to about 1/8 inch thick.
Cut out shapes with small fancy cutters.
Place the shapes on a baking sheet.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 10 minutes.
Do not bake until brown.
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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Coconut + almondtop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,093 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
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Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,673 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + carawaytop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,435 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Caraway + almondtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together84 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,245 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the currant
The recipe marks currant as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, flour, coconut, caraway, almond):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, flour, coconut, caraway, almond. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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