Name: A Siviss Pudding
Ingredients: crumbs of bread; sliced apples; sugar; melted butter

Why it works: Bread and butter match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,145 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

crumbs of bread
sliced apples
sugar
melted butter

Directions

The book says “a quick 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).
Layer crumbs of bread and sliced apples in a dish, sprinkling sugar between layers.
Ensure the top layer is crumbs of bread.
Pour melted butter over the top.
Bake until golden brown.
Turn out the pudding and grate pounded sugar over it.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Bread + buttertop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together27,145 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Apple + buttertop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together8,692 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-undecalactone (peach, sweet).
Bread + appletop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together1,788 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Apple + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together16,440 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + buttertop 10% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together98,096 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Apple and sugar share little aroma chemistry, yet 16,440 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, sugar, butter):

Vanillabetter flavor fit
Figabout as good a flavor fit
Applethe original
Peachabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).