Why it works: Olive and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,875 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Apple Charlotte
Ingredients
Directions
Grease a pie dish with olive oil or butter.
Layer half an inch thick of wholemeal bread crumbs at the bottom.
Add a layer of stewed apples or apple rings.
Alternate layers of bread crumbs and apples until the dish is full, finishing with bread crumbs.
Sprinkle finely-chopped almonds with each layer of apples.
Dot the top with bits of butter and bake.
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.
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Olive + almondtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Olive + breadtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,091 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,245 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Olive + appletop 13% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,565 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
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 (olive, bread, almond, butter):
- Figfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Avocadofits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against olive, bread, almond, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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