Name: Hot Apple-toddy
Ingredients: 1 medium baked apple; ⅓ cup apple-jack; 2 tablespoons sugar; 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg; ½ cup boiling water

Why it works: Apple and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,790 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Hot Apple-toddy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Remove the skin and core from the baked apple using a teaspoon.
Place the apple pulp in a tumbler.

Mix and serve

Add the apple-jack, sugar, and boiling water to the tumbler.
Stir well to combine.
Top with grated nutmeg.

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.

Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,790 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together16,478 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + nutmegtop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together23,364 recipes

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

Apple and sugar 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

Baked apple: Its soft pulp gives the drink body, moisture, and natural sweetness.
Apple-jack: Adds alcohol, apple flavour, and warming aroma to the drink.
Sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the tartness of the apple and the spirit.