Name: How We Cook in Tennessee
Ingredients: one pint of alcohol add ten pounds of various kinds of fruits; one pound of sugar; two gallons; ten pounds of various kinds of fruits; two pounds; one lemon

Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

How We Cook in Tennessee

Ingredients

Directions

Add ten pounds of various kinds of fruits to one pint of alcohol, adding one pound of sugar for each pound of fruit.
Make two gallons in a stone jar, adding the fruits and sugar as they are obtained in season.
Stir each day until finished.
Seal in fruit jars.
Use cherries (2 lb), bananas (2 lb), apricots, blackberries, raspberries, damsons, and lemon juice.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

61Calories

0 gProtein

0 gFat

16 gCarbs

Counts 2 of 3 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 2 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Fruit	not in our table	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Jackson (Tenn.). First Baptist Church. The Silver Thimble Society. 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. See the original page.

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 + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Fruit: Provides the main flavor, color and texture of the finished mixture.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and draws moisture out of the fruit to help preserve it.
Alcohol: Helps preserve the fruit and extracts flavor from it.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the fruit.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.