Name: Pan-dowdy
Ingredients: sour apples, quartered; ½ cup hot water; nearly 1 cup molasses; flour (for crust); butter (for crust); sugar (for crust); baking powder (for crust); milk (for serving)

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Pan-dowdy

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Pare and quarter enough sour apples to nearly fill a deep baking dish.
Add ½ cup of hot water and nearly 1 cup of molasses to the apples.
Make a crust similar to strawberry shortcake, rolling it out to 1 inch thick.
Fit the crust closely over the apples.
Bake in the oven until the crust is done.
While warm, break the crust into pieces and mix it through the apples.
For best results, bake the day before serving and serve with cream or milk.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,104 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, flour, butter, sugar, milk):

Raisinfits better
Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, flour, butter, sugar, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.