Name: Fruit Rolls
Ingredients: 1 cup seeded raisins; 1 cup figs; 1 cup dates; enough fondant to bind; flour or confectioner's sugar for dusting

Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Fruit Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

Chop the seeded raisins, figs, and dates together.
Knead the chopped fruit with enough fondant to create a rich, fruit-heavy mass.
On a surface dusted with flour or confectioner's sugar, roll the mixture into a log ½ inch thick and 1 inch wide.

Wrap and set

Roll out plain white fondant to ¼ inch thick and 4 inches wide.
Wrap the fruit roll in the plain fondant.
Let it stand overnight, then cut into 4-inch lengths.

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 + flourtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Fig + datestop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together318 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
Raisin + figtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together737 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Raisin + datestop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together358 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,192 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Seeded raisins: Add concentrated sweetness and chewy body to the fruit filling.
Figs: Contribute moisture and a soft, chewy texture to the fruit mass.
Dates: Add sweetness and moisture that help bind the fruit mixture.
Fondant: Binds the chopped fruit and forms the sweet outer wrapper.