Why it works: Plum and apple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 404 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Goblet Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Chop the cold meat finely and place it in a basin.
Chop the suet finely and add it to the basin.
Peel, core, and chop the apples finely, then add them to the mixture.
Stone the plums, chop them into small pieces, and add to the basin.
Wash the currants, dry them, and add to the mixture.
Mix all ingredients well with a spoon.
Turn the mixture into a small pie dish.
In a separate bowl, mix the flour with a pinch of salt and the baking powder.
Rub in the dripping until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
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.
-
Plum + appletop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together404 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Currant + plumtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together255 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
-
Currant + appletop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,918 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
-
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Sugar + appletop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and apple 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
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, sugar, plum, apple, flour):
- Pearfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against meat, sugar, plum, apple, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
You might also like
Currant Cookies8 recipes
Delicate Cake246 recipes
Boiled Frosting69 recipes
Citron Cake68 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.