Why it works: Nutmeg and lime match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 236 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Peach Fritters
Ingredients
Directions
Pare and core the pears, then cut them into round slices about ⅓ inch thick.
Place the slices in a bowl and sprinkle with sugar, nutmeg, and lime juice.
Let the mixture stand for at least 30 minutes.
Prepare the fruit-fritter batter as directed for plantain fritters.
Fry the fritters for 3 minutes until golden brown.
Drain the fritters on paper towels, arrange on a plate, and dust with sugar before serving hot.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Nutmeg + limetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together236 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Pear + nutmegtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together155 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Pear + limetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together52 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Pear + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,079 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Sugar + nutmegtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together23,364 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Sugar and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 23,364 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
Swap the pear
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, nutmeg, lime):
- Lemonfits better
- Avocadofits better
- Blueberryfits better
- Pearthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, nutmeg, lime. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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