Name: Apple Bread
Ingredients: 2 cups all-purpose flour; 1 cup apple juice; 1 teaspoon leaven

Why it works: Flour and apple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,140 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Apple Bread

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup apple juice
1 teaspoon leaven

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix the flour and leaven.
Gradually add the apple juice and stir until combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased loaf pan.

Bake and cool

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.
Let cool before slicing.

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.

Flour + appletop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,140 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour: Provides the protein and starch that build the loaf's structure as it hydrates.
Apple juice: Hydrates the flour and adds moisture, plus natural sugars that help browning.