Name: French Cream
Ingredients: raisins; currants; figs; citron; cream

Why it works: Raisin and fig work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 737 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

French Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Warm the cream.
Thoroughly mix in the chopped raisins, currants, figs, and a little citron.
Shape the mixture into bars or flat cakes.

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.

Raisin + figtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together737 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Currant + figtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together276 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Raisin + creamtop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,642 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Fig + creamtop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together523 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).