Name: Neufchatel Cheese Molded with Nuts
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon melted butter; ½ cup sweet cream; a dash of red pepper; 1 cup English walnuts or pecans, blanched and chopped (or chopped olives and pimentos)

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Neufchatel Cheese Molded with Nuts

Ingredients

1 tablespoon melted butter
½ cup sweet cream
a dash of red pepper
1 cup English walnuts or pecans, blanched and chopped (or chopped olives and pimentos)

Directions

In a bowl, combine melted butter, sweet cream, red pepper, and chopped nuts (or olives and pimentos).
Mix until well combined.
Press the mixture into an oval shape on a serving dish.
Serve with vegetable salad (celery, tomato, or lettuce) and crackers.

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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Pepper + walnuttop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,039 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter + walnuttop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,832 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Cream + walnuttop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,982 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).