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Polenta and Quince Upside-Down Cake

An autumnal polenta and quince upside-down cake with a spiced ginger syrup.

By tastykitchen · From Open Recipes · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Quince and vanilla share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 33 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 8
Prep25 min
Cook40 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By tastykitchen. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Quince + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together33 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sugar + syruptop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,841 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Vanilla + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together1,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Quince + gingertop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together62 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

Sugar and vanilla share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,031 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (quince, sugar, butter, egg, vanilla, flour, syrup):

  1. Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
  2. Nutmegabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Cloveabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against quince, sugar, butter, egg, vanilla, flour, syrup. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).