Name: Raspberry Dumplings
Ingredients: cold pastry dough; raspberry jam; melted butter; sugar

Why it works: Raspberry and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,308 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Raspberry Dumplings

Ingredients

cold pastry dough
raspberry jam
melted butter
sugar

Directions

Roll the cold pastry dough to ¼ inch thick.
Spread raspberry jam over the dough.
Roll it up and wrap in a cloth.
Boil for at least 1 hour.
Remove from cloth and cut into 5 slices.
Place one slice in the center and arrange the other four around it.
Pour melted butter over the dumplings.
Sprinkle sugar around the edge of the dish.

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.

Raspberry + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,308 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Raspberry + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,101 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).