Name: Ambrosia
Ingredients: baked apples; soaked or stewed raisins; beaten egg whites or whipped cream; zwieback

Why it works: Apple and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,920 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Ambrosia

Ingredients

baked apples
soaked or stewed raisins
beaten egg whites or whipped cream
zwieback

Directions

Mash the baked apples very fine.
Rub the mashed apples through a colander.
Mix with soaked or stewed raisins if desired.
Serve in place of apple sauce with beaten egg whites or whipped cream and zwieback.

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 + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,920 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Raisin + eggtop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,556 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Apple + eggtop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,461 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).