Name: Apple Farci
Ingredients: tart red apples (Northern Spies recommended); raisins; dates or figs; sugar; cinnamon; canned or fresh pineapple (optional); ¼ cup water or fruit juice

Why it works: Raisin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Apple Farci

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Wash, wipe, and core the apples without peeling them.
Remove apple flesh in three places, equally spaced from the stem and blossom ends.
Fill the cavities with raisins first, then add dates, figs, sugar, and cinnamon.
Place the apples in a pan sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon.
Sprinkle each apple with more sugar and cinnamon.
Bake in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C) until the sugar melts.
Add ¼ cup of water or fruit juice and bake until tender, basting frequently with the syrup.
Serve hot or cold with whipped cream sprinkled with cocoa.

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Apple + pineappletop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together530 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,598 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Dates + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together283 recipes

Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Swap the apple

The recipe marks apple as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, dates, sugar, cinnamon, pineapple):

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Applethe original
Orangefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, dates, sugar, cinnamon, pineapple. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.