Name: Spiced Appl.e8
Ingredients: 2 cups sugar; 1 cup vinegar; spices (to taste); apples (enough to fill jars)

Why it works: Sugar and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Spiced Appl.e8

Ingredients

2 cups sugar
1 cup vinegar
spices (to taste)
apples (enough to fill jars)

Directions

Boil sugar and vinegar together.
Add spices and apples.
Cook until apples are tender.
Put apples in jars and pour juice over the top.

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.

Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Vinegar + appletop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,884 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Sugar + appletop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked 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

What each ingredient does

Sugar: Sweetens the syrup and helps preserve the apples' texture and flavour.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that gives the syrup a sharp counterpoint to the sweetness.
Apples: Provide the fruit that softens in the syrup and absorbs its flavour.