Name: Sour Cream Filling
Ingredients: 1 cup sour cream; 1 cup raisins, stoned and chopped; ½ cup chopped figs

Why it works: Raisin and fig work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 737 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Sour Cream Filling

Ingredients

1 cup sour cream
1 cup raisins, stoned and chopped
½ cup chopped figs

Directions

Beat the sour cream until smooth.
Add the chopped raisins and figs, mixing well.

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.

Raisin + figtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together737 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Cream + raisintop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,642 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Cream + figtop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together523 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Sour cream: Provides moisture and a tangy richness that makes the filling smooth and creamy.
Raisins: Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture to the filling.
Figs: Add sweetness, body and a chewy texture to the filling.