Name: Maple Raisin Crackers
Ingredients: 1 cup maple sugar; ½ cup chopped raisins; 2 egg whites; Saltine crackers

Why it works: Sugar and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,481 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Maple Raisin Crackers

Ingredients

1 cup maple sugar
½ cup chopped raisins
2 egg whites
Saltine crackers

Directions

Prepare

Pulverize the maple sugar and measure it.
Add the stiffly beaten egg whites and chopped raisins, then mix well.

Bake

Spread the mixture on the Saltine crackers.
Place the crackers in the oven to brown.

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 + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Raisin + eggtop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,556 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Maple sugar: Provides sweetness and caramel flavour as it browns in the oven.
Egg whites: Whipped to stiff foam, they add lightness and help the topping hold together.
Chopped raisins: Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness to the topping.