Why it works: Peanut and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,048 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓
Peanut Cookies
Ingredients
Directions
Cream the shortening and sugar together.
Add the beaten egg and mix well.
Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda, then add to the mixture.
Stir in the milk, chopped peanuts, and lemon juice.
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto greased baking sheets.
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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Peanut + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,048 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Peanut + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,427 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
Swap the peanut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, flour, milk, lemon):
- Almondfits better
- Milletfits better
- Pistachiofits better
- Peanutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, flour, milk, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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