Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Compote of Chestnuts Glaces
Ingredients
Directions
Split the skins of the chestnuts across the rounded part.
Parboil them in water for five minutes.
Roast the chestnuts in the oven until done.
Carefully remove the hulls from the chestnuts.
Squeeze them flat with a napkin and stick two together with apricot jam.
Hold each chestnut on a fork and dip it in sugar boiled to the crack.
Place them on a wire drainer resting on a baking plate.
Dish up the compote in a pyramidal form and pour orange-flavored syrup around the base.
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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Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,842 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Apricot + orangetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together703 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Chestnut + apricottop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together56 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl pentanoate (yeast, fruit).
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Chestnut + orangetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together112 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Chestnut + syruptop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together87 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chestnut, apricot, sugar, syrup):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Peachfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chestnut, apricot, sugar, syrup. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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