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Thanksgiving Dinner

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Thanksgiving Dinner

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cut off the upper third of the pumpkin and remove seeds and membrane.

  2. Stand a tall vase in the center of the pumpkin and fill it with yellow chrysanthemums.

  3. Surround the vase with fruit, placing oranges and apples inside the pumpkin.

  4. Allow clusters of white grapes to fall over the edges.

  5. Place the pumpkin on a low silver tray and arrange 3 or 4 oranges around it, cut partway down in quarters and turned back like rose leaves.

  6. Add a few chrysanthemums with their own foliage.

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.

  1. Apple + grapetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,659 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Orange + grapetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,771 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Orange + appletop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

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

  4. Pumpkin + grapetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together341 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  5. Pumpkin + appletop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together281 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

Swap the pumpkin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (orange, apple, grape):

  1. Pearfits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Pineapplefits better
  4. Pumpkinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against orange, apple, grape. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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