Name: Petits Gateaux Pralines a LA Marmelade De Prunes De Mirabelle
Ingredients: 1 sheet puff pastry (14 inches square); 1 pot plum marmalade; 1 egg (for egg wash); filberts (for masking)

Why it works: Egg and filbert work together. They rank in the top 27% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 86 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Petits Gateaux Pralines a LA Marmelade De Prunes De Mirabelle

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

1 sheet puff pastry (14 inches square)
1 pot plum marmalade
1 egg (for egg wash)
filberts (for masking)

Directions

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

Prepare

Roll out the puff pastry to 1/12 inch thick.
Spread the plum marmalade over the pastry.
Cover with another sheet of puff pastry.
Cut out half‑moon shapes, about 1¼ inches wide and 2½ inches long.

Finish and bake

Lightly egg wash the tops of the cakes.
Mask the tops with filberts.
Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until lightly colored.

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.

Egg + filberttop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together86 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Plum + eggtop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together794 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Plum + filberttop 39% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Puff pastry: Flaky layers that puff up and brown in the oven, forming the crisp shell.
Plum marmalade: Adds sweetness and fruit flavor, and its sugars help the tops brown.
Egg: Egg wash gives the tops a glossy, golden color when baked.
Filberts: Crunchy topping that adds texture and nutty flavor to the surface.

The step that matters

Bake in a slow oven until lightly colored. Puff pastry relies on steam from its butter layers to rise. A slow oven at 300°F gives the layers time to puff and dry out without over-browning. Pulling them when only lightly colored keeps the sugar in the marmalade from burning.