Name: Chestnut Biscuits
Ingredients: 1 pound 2 ounces Spanish chestnuts; ½ pound all-purpose flour; 6 ounces sifted sugar; 2 large eggs; 1 beaten egg mixed with a little milk for washing

Why it works: Chestnut and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 517 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Chestnut Biscuits

Oven, in the book's wordsA gentle oven

Ingredients

1 pound 2 ounces Spanish chestnuts
½ pound all-purpose flour
6 ounces sifted sugar
2 large eggs
1 beaten egg mixed with a little milk for washing

Directions

The book says “a gentle oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the chestnuts

Make a slight incision in the rinds of the chestnuts without cutting into the kernels.
Boil the chestnuts in a large pan of water for 30 minutes until soft, then drain and spread them on a tin to dry in a gentle oven.
Once dried, remove the rind and skin, then pound the chestnuts until smooth.

Make and shape the dough

Weigh 12 ounces of the chestnut paste and mix it with ½ pound of flour and 6 ounces of sifted sugar.
Blend the ingredients thoroughly with your fingers, then gradually add 2 eggs.
Mold the mixture into cakes the size of a chestnut.

Bake and serve

Wash the cakes with the beaten egg and milk mixture.
Bake in a gentle oven at 300°F (150°C) for 20 to 30 minutes until crisp.

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.

Chestnut + flourtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together517 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Chestnut + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together647 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

What each ingredient does

Spanish chestnuts: Provide the main bulk and sweet, starchy flavor of the biscuits.
All-purpose flour: Gives the dough structure so the cakes hold their shape while baking.
Eggs: Bind the dough together and add richness to the crumb.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the biscuits brown and crisp in the oven.