Name: To Make Snow Balls
Ingredients: 5 large baking apples; orange or quince marmalade; flour for paste; icing (for a plum cake); green sprigs or small flowers for garnish

Why it works: Apple and plum match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 404 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

To Make Snow Balls

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

5 large baking apples
orange or quince marmalade
flour for paste
icing (for a plum cake)
green sprigs or small flowers for garnish

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Pare the apples and remove the cores with a scoop.
Fill the holes with orange or quince marmalade.
Make a hot paste and roll the apples in it.
Prepare a crust of equal thickness and cover the apples.
Place the apples in a tin dripping pan and bake until done.
Remove from the oven and ice them with icing about ¼ inch thick.
Set them away from the fire to harden without browning.
Arrange one apple in the center of a china dish and the others around it.
Garnish with green sprigs or small flowers.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + plumtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together404 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,230 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Orange + plumtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together309 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Flour + plumtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together777 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Orange + flourtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,821 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).