Why it works: Sugar and ginger are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,054 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Squash Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Mix the squash, sugar, and ginger together.
Add hot milk to the mixture.
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.
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Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together14,054 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Ginger + milktop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,519 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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 ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Gingerthe original
- Clovefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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