Name: Jellibd Apricots
Ingredients: ½ lb evaporated apricots; ½ teaspoon granulated sugar; cream for serving

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Jellibd Apricots

Ingredients

½ lb evaporated apricots
½ teaspoon granulated sugar
cream for serving

Directions

Wash the apricots and soak them overnight in cold water.
The next morning, place the apricots in a double boiler and cook over very low heat until tender but still holding their shape.
Measure the syrup and for each cupful, use the specified amount of gelatin softened in a little cold water.
Reheat the syrup, add the gelatin, and stir until dissolved.
Wet the molds, place an apricot in the bottom of each, and pour the syrup over them.
Set the molds in a cold place to harden.
Turn out the jellied apricots and serve with 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.

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.

Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Apricot + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,630 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Apricot + creamtop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,116 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).