Name: Rice Turban
Ingredients: rice; apples; syrup; vanilla cream; crystallized fruits (greengages, apricots, cherries)

Why it works: Vanilla and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 608 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Rice Turban

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rice as directed in the recipe for rice.
Cut the apples into quarters and stew them in syrup, keeping the quarters whole.
Dish the rice and place a small bowl in the center to create a space for the vanilla cream.
Dress the rice around the bowl and level it with the back of a spoon.
Arrange the apples around the rice until you reach the top.
Place the dish in the oven just long enough to dry the syrup on the apples.
Decorate with crystallized fruits of different colors.
When ready to serve, remove the bowl and fill the space with vanilla 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.

Vanilla + apricottop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together608 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
Apple + apricottop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together777 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-undecalactone (peach, sweet).
Apple + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,501 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Rice + vanillatop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,352 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Syrup + creamtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,964 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, syrup, vanilla, cream, apricot):

Peachfits better
Strawberryfits better
Figfits better
Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, syrup, vanilla, cream, apricot. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.