Name: Food for the Gods
Ingredients: 6 eggs; 2 cups sugar; 9 tablespoons cracker crumbs; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 1 pound English walnuts, broken; ½ pound dates, cut in halves; whipped cream for serving

Why it works: Walnut and dates work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 302 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Food for the Gods

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Beat the eggs well and set aside.

Make the batter

In a bowl, mix the sugar, cracker crumbs, and baking powder.
Add the broken walnuts and halved dates to the mixture.
Fold in the beaten eggs until combined.
Pour the batter into a greased baking dish.

Bake and serve

Bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Serve with whipped cream.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Walnut + datestop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together302 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Sugar + datestop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together985 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Walnut + creamtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,982 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Beaten eggs add structure and moisture, helping the batter set as it bakes.
Cracker crumbs: Crumbs add body and absorb moisture, giving the batter a light, tender texture.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking, helping the batter rise and become lighter.
English walnuts: Add fat, crunch and nutty flavor that contrast with the soft batter.
Dates: Add natural sweetness and chewy texture throughout the baked dessert.