Name: Petits Gateaux Royaux Aux Avelines —
Ingredients: 2 ounces filbert kernels; 6 ounces finely sifted sugar; 1 egg white

Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Petits Gateaux Royaux Aux Avelines —

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

2 ounces filbert kernels
6 ounces finely sifted sugar
1 egg white

Directions

Skin the filbert kernels and pound them finely.
Gradually mix in ¼ of the egg white to prevent the nuts from becoming oily.
Pass the mixture through a fine sieve.
In a bowl, combine the nut mixture with the sugar and the remaining egg white.
Work the mixture for several minutes until well combined.
Spread the icing over the cakes and finish as desired.

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.

Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Filbert + eggtop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together86 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Filbert + sugartop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together143 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).