Name: Apple Relish
Ingredients: 1 cup cinnamon drops; 1 cup boiling water; smooth apples of uniform size; whipped cream for garnish

Why it works: Cinnamon and apple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Apple Relish

Ingredients

1 cup cinnamon drops
1 cup boiling water
smooth apples of uniform size
whipped cream for garnish

Directions

Dissolve the cinnamon drops in boiling water.
Wash, peel, and core the apples.
When the syrup is boiling, add as many apples as will float without touching each other.
Boil gently until tender, turning frequently for even coloring.
Serve cold, garnished with whipped cream.

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.

Cinnamon + appletop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,598 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Apple + creamtop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,089 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Cinnamon + creamtop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,510 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).