Name: Canned Apples
Ingredients: apples; water; syrup; slices of lemon

Why it works: Apple and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,551 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Canned Apples

Ingredients

apples
water
syrup
slices of lemon

Directions

Quarter the apples or halve them if small.
Cook the apples gently in a covered saucepan with minimal water until tender but not broken.
Pour the syrup over the apples and bring to a boil.
Can the mixture immediately.
If preferred, steam the apples over a kettle of hot water.
Sort the apples by hardness and cook tender ones separately.
Remove the lemon slices from the syrup before using.

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.

Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,551 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Syrup + lemontop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,235 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Apple + syruptop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together742 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).