Name: Puree of Apples Moulded
Ingredients: 10 apples (about the size of a lawn-tennis ball); 10 ounces sifted sugar; ⅓ cup water; 1 tablespoon rum

Why it works: Apple and rum work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 214 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓

Puree of Apples Moulded

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

10 apples (about the size of a lawn-tennis ball)
10 ounces sifted sugar
⅓ cup water
1 tablespoon rum

Directions

Prepare

Peel, core, and mince the apples.
In a saucepan, combine the sugar, water, and rum.
Add the minced apples to the saucepan.

Cook and set

Cook over low heat, stirring gently until the apples are soft.
Once cooked, puree the mixture until smooth.
Transfer to a mold and refrigerate until set.

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.

Apple + rumtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together214 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,908 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together16,478 recipes

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

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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

What each ingredient does

Apples: Provide the bulk of the puree and its fruity flavour and body once softened and pureed.
Sugar: Sweetens the puree and helps give it a smooth, set texture as it cools.
Rum: Adds a small amount of aroma and flavour to the puree.

The step that matters

Cooking the apples gently. Cooking over low heat with gentle stirring softens the apples evenly without scorching the sugar, which would make the puree taste bitter and brown. Fully softened apples purée smoothly, giving a uniform texture when set.