Name: Apple Dumplings
Ingredients: 6 large baking apples; cloves; grated lemon peel; puff pastry; sugar; fresh butter; powdered sugar

Why it works: Apple and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,774 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Apple Dumplings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Preheat the water for boiling.
Core the apples and place a clove and a little grated lemon peel inside each apple.
Wrap each apple in puff pastry.

Boil

Boil the wrapped apples in a cloth for 1 hour.

Finish and serve

Before serving, cut a small piece from the top of each apple.
Add 1 teaspoon of sugar and a small piece of fresh butter inside each apple.
Replace the pastry top and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

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 + clovetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,774 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,150 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,551 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,706 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Baking apples: Form the soft, tender body of the dessert and supply a tart fruit flavour.
Puff pastry: Wraps each apple to hold the filling in place while it cooks.
Sugar: Adds sweetness to the cooked apple and its juices.
Fresh butter: Adds richness and moisture to the apple filling.
Grated lemon peel: Adds a bright citrus aroma to the apple.
Cloves: Adds a warm, spiced aroma to the apple.