Name: Compote of Apricots a LA Conde
Ingredients: halves of apricots; cooked rice; sugar; red syrup or jelly

Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Compote of Apricots a LA Conde

Ingredients

halves of apricots
cooked rice
sugar
red syrup or jelly

Directions

Prepare cooked rice and sweeten it with sugar.
Place the sweetened rice on a serving dish.
Arrange the apricot halves on top of the rice.
Drizzle red syrup or jelly over the apricots for finishing touches.

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.

Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Apricot + ricetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together353 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-undecalactone (peach, sweet).
Apricot + syruptop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Apricot + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,630 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Rice + sugartop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,744 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).