Name: Apple Butter
Ingredients: good apples (such as Northern Spy, Rhode Island Greening, Tompkins King, or Smokehouse); sweet cider; vinegar (optional, to taste)

Why it works: Apple and cider are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,238 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Apple Butter

Ingredients

good apples (such as Northern Spy, Rhode Island Greening, Tompkins King, or Smokehouse)
sweet cider
vinegar (optional, to taste)

Directions

Core and chop the apples into small pieces.
Combine the chopped apples with sweet cider in a large pot.
Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the mixture thickens and reaches a butter-like consistency.
If using overripe apples, add a little vinegar to enhance flavor.
Taste and adjust vinegar as needed.
For small batches, this can take about an hour.

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 + cidertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,238 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,431 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Apple + vinegartop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,884 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).