Name: Guava Stew Tarts
Ingredients: ripe guava; sugar; allspice; 1 cup cold water

Why it works: Guava and allspice share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Guava Stew Tarts

Ingredients

ripe guava
sugar
allspice
1 cup cold water

Directions

Peel and halve the ripe guava, then remove the seeds.
Soak the guava halves in cold water for a few minutes, then drain.
In a saucepan, combine the guava, enough sugar to sweeten, allspice, and 1 cup of cold water.
Simmer on low heat until the fruit softens.

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.

Guava + allspicetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Sugar + allspicetop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,938 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Guava + sugartop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together115 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).