Name: Peanut Soup
Ingredients: 2 cups peanuts; 3 cups milk; 1 tablespoon butter; salt to taste; pepper to taste

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Peanut Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the peanuts in enough water to cover them until tender.
Mash the peanuts and add the milk, butter, salt, and pepper.
Serve hot.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Peanut + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,048 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Peanut + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,754 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Peanut + peppertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together668 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Peanuts: Provide the main body and nutty flavor of the soup once boiled and mashed.
Milk: Adds moisture and creaminess, thinning the mashed peanuts into a soup texture.
Butter: Adds fat that gives the soup a smoother, richer mouthfeel.