Name: Date and Cheese Salad
Ingredients: dates; cream cheese; milk

Why it works: Cream cheese and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,393 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Date and Cheese Salad

Ingredients

dates
cream cheese
milk

Directions

Remove stones from the dates.
Fill the dates with cream cheese moistened with milk to make a thin paste.

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.

Cream cheese + milktop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,393 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Dates + milktop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together470 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Dates + cream cheesetop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together16 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).