Why it works: Walnut and almond 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 ↓
Fruit and Nut Fillings
Ingredients
Directions
Chop the olives finely and mix with salad dressing.
Chop the walnuts, almonds, pecans, or peanuts very finely and combine with salad dressing.
Chop the dates finely and moisten with cream or a mild salad dressing.
Soak seeded raisins in hot water for 15 minutes, then chop finely and mix with salad dressing.
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.
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Walnut + almondtop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together993 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Walnut + pecanstop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together634 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Olive + almondtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Olive + walnuttop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,087 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Nuts + almondtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together394 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the nuts
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, cheese, chicken, veal, walnut, almond, pecans):
- Pistachiofits better
- Cashew nutfits better
- Peanutfits better
- Nutsthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against olive, cheese, chicken, veal, walnut, almond, pecans. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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