Name: Apples in Grape Juice
Ingredients: sound apples; sweetened, unfermented grape juice; cream or soft custard

Why it works: Apple and grape match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,659 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Apples in Grape Juice

Ingredients

sound apples
sweetened, unfermented grape juice
cream or soft custard

Directions

Pare the apples carefully.
Boil the sweetened grape juice.
Cook the pared apples in the boiling juice until tender.
Lift the apples carefully and place them on a serving dish.
Boil down the juice until thick and pour it over the apples.
Serve cold with cream or soft custard.

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 + grapetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,659 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Apple + creamtop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,089 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Grape + creamtop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,284 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).