Name: Tapioca Pudding
Ingredients: 1 cup tapioca; 1 quart water; Butter (for greasing); Pared and cored apples; 1 tablespoon sugar; A pinch of cinnamon or nutmeg; A pinch of salt

Why it works: Apple and cinnamon 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 ↓

Tapioca Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Soak the tapioca in water for 2 hours on the back of the stove.
Butter a pudding dish well.
Line the bottom of the dish with the pared and cored apples.

Assemble and bake

Season the soaked tapioca with sugar, cinnamon or nutmeg, and salt. Pour the tapioca mixture over the apples.
Bake until the apples are thoroughly done.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,598 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Butter + appletop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,706 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter + cinnamontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,784 recipes

Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 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

What each ingredient does

Tapioca: Swells as it soaks and thickens into the pudding's soft, creamy body.
Apples: Soften during baking and give the pudding its fruity flavour and tender layer.
Sugar: Adds sweetness to balance the mild tapioca and tart apples.