Name: Brown Betty
Ingredients: 1 cup bread crumbs; 2 cups chopped tart apples; ½ cup sugar; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 2 tablespoons butter

Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Brown Betty

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Butter a deep dish.

Layer the apples and crumbs

Layer chopped apples at the bottom.
Sprinkle with sugar, a few bits of butter, and cinnamon.
Repeat layers until the dish is full, ending with a layer of bread crumbs on top.

Steam

Cover closely and steam for 30 minutes.

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 + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,598 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Bread + appletop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,790 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,706 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Tart apples: Provide the main body and tart flavor that balances the sugar.
Bread crumbs: Form a soft, crumbly topping and absorb juices as the apples soften.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the apples release juice and caramelize slightly.
Butter: Adds richness and fat that helps the topping taste savory-sweet and brown lightly.