Name: Apple Dumpling
Ingredients: 1 large apple, peeled and cored; 2 teaspoons sugar; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 1 crusty potato or short pastry dough; water for boiling

Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Apple Dumpling

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Roll out the pastry dough large enough to cover the apple.
Place the peeled and cored apple in the center.
Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon inside the apple.
Wrap the pastry around the apple and tie it in a small cloth.

Boil and serve

Boil water in a pot and add the wrapped apple dumpling.
Boil for 1 hour.
Serve with sweet sauce.

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 + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,598 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cinnamon + potatotop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,012 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Apple + potatotop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together603 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together16,478 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Apple: Provides the fruit filling that softens and turns tender during boiling.
Sugar: Adds sweetness to the apple filling.
Cinnamon: Adds warm aroma to the apple filling.
Pastry dough: Wraps the apple and holds its shape while it cooks.