Why it works: Olive and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 35% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,483 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Pop Corn Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the popcorn as for balls.
Pack the popcorn closely into strong square tins lightly oiled with olive oil.
Boil enough brown sugar and glucose to coat the popcorn.
Pour the hot syrup over the popcorn to make them adhere.
When cold, cut into desired sizes with a sharp knife.
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.
-
Olive + sugartop 35% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,483 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Olive and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,483 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
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.