Name: Fruit Loaf
Ingredients: ½ cup white fondant; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 6 candied cherries, quartered; chopped citron (to taste); ½ cup chocolate fondant; ½ cup maple fondant; chopped nuts (to taste)

Why it works: Vanilla and chocolate are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Fruit Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the box

Select a long, narrow pasteboard box and line it with waxed paper.

Make the layers

Melt ½ cup of white fondant.
Mix in 1 teaspoon of vanilla, the quartered cherries, and chopped citron for the first layer.
Melt another ½ cup of fondant. Flavor it with chocolate and vanilla for the second layer.
Melt ½ cup of maple fondant. Add chopped nuts for the third layer.

Set and serve

Cover with waxed paper.
Cool quickly.
Turn it out of the box.
Cut into slices.

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.

Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,020 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Vanilla + nutstop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together638 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Chocolate + nutstop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together440 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

White fondant: Forms the sweet, firm base layer that holds the fruit and citron.
Chocolate fondant: Adds a sweet chocolate flavor to the middle layer.
Maple fondant: Adds a sweet maple flavor to the top layer.
Candied cherries: Add chewy texture and bright sweetness to the first layer.