Name: Oatmeal Brown Betty
Ingredients: 2 cups cooked oatmeal; 3 apples, sliced; ¼ cup sugar; 1 teaspoon spice (cinnamon or nutmeg); 2 tablespoons butter

Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Oatmeal Brown Betty

Ingredients

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.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Assemble

In a pudding dish, layer the sliced apples and cooked oatmeal alternately.
Sprinkle sugar and spice over each layer of apples.
Smooth the final layer of oatmeal with a knife and dot with butter.

Bake and serve

Bake until browned and serve hot with sauce or cream.

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 + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,598 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,706 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Cinnamon + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,784 recipes

Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Apples: Provide the fruit base, releasing moisture and tartness as they soften during baking.
Oatmeal: Forms the layered, lightly set body that holds the apples together.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the apples caramelize and brown at the surface.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, and helps the top layer brown in the oven.
Spice: Contributes aroma and warm flavor that complements the cooked apples.