Name: Fruit and Nut Filling
Ingredients: 1 cup water; 5 figs; 3 egg whites; 1 tablespoon lemon juice; 6 cherries; 1 cup raisins; sugar (to taste)

Why it works: Fig and raisin work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 737 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Fruit and Nut Filling

Ingredients

Directions

Seed and chop the raisins and pecans.
Cut the figs into thin strips and the cherries into fine pieces.
In a smooth saucepan, combine sugar and water, bring to a boil, and cook until the syrup forms a dry, hard ball in cold water.
Gradually pour the syrup over the stiffly beaten egg whites until the mixture is the right consistency to spread.
Add the chopped fruits and nuts, then spread the mixture over the cake.

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.

Fig + raisintop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together737 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Fig + lemontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together763 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,742 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Fig + sugartop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,241 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).