Name: Nut Caramels
Ingredients: 1 cup chocolate; 1½ pounds blanched almonds, chopped; 1 pound English walnuts, chopped

Why it works: Almond and walnut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 993 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Nut Caramels

Ingredients

1 cup chocolate
1½ pounds blanched almonds, chopped
1 pound English walnuts, chopped

Directions

Make the mixture

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler.
Stir in the chopped almonds and walnuts until well combined.

Set and cut

Pour the mixture into a greased pan and let it cool.
Cut into squares once set.

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.

Almond + walnuttop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together993 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Chocolate + almondtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,733 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Chocolate + walnuttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,548 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

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

What each ingredient does

Chocolate: Melts to bind the nuts together and gives the candy its flavour and richness.
Almonds: Add bulk, crunch and a nutty flavour that holds the candy together.
Walnuts: Add bulk, crunch and a slightly bitter nutty flavour to the candy.