Name: Tapioca Pudding
Ingredients: 1 cup tapioca; 2 quarts water; juice and rind of 1 lemon; 1 cup raisins; 1 quart apples

Why it works: Raisin and apple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,920 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Tapioca Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Soak the tapioca in 2 quarts of water overnight.

Make the apple filling

Cook the apples until tender, then mash them smooth.
Add the raisins to the apples when nearly done.

Serve

Serve cold with sweetened cream.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + appletop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,920 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Lemon + appletop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,551 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Lemon + raisintop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,742 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Tapioca: Thickens the pudding as it cooks, giving it a soft, slightly chewy texture.
Apples: Provide bulk, moisture and tart fruit flavor once cooked and mashed smooth.
Raisins: Add concentrated sweetness and chewy bursts of fruit flavor to the pudding.
Lemon: Adds bright acidity and aroma that balance the sweetness of the dish.