Name: Apple Dumplings
Ingredients: 8 cups milk; 2 oz best butter; zest from 1 lemon; powdered lump sugar to taste; a little vanilla sugar; 6 egg yolks; ½ cup cream or more milk if needed; 6 egg whites

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Apple Dumplings

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

In a pot, combine milk and rice, and let it gently boil until tender.
Stir in butter, lemon zest, powdered sugar, and vanilla sugar.
Add egg yolks two at a time, mixing well.
If the mixture is too thick, add cream or more milk.
Let the mixture cool in the larder.
Whisk egg whites in a clean bowl until stiff peaks form.
Fold half of the egg whites into the rice mixture, then gently fold in the remaining whites.
Pour the mixture into a pie dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.
Serve hot with fruit sauce if desired.

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.

Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,187 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, sugar, vanilla, egg, cream):

Strawberryfits better
Coconutfits better
Figfits better
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, sugar, vanilla, egg, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.