Name: Black Caps
Ingredients: 12 large apples; 2 tablespoons orange flower water; 1 lemon; lemon peel; fine sugar

Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Black Caps

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Cut the apples in half and core them.
Place them flat side down on a tin patty pan, close together.

Flavour and bake

Squeeze the lemon into the orange flower water and pour it over the apples.
Shred the lemon peel finely and sprinkle it over the apples.
Grate fine sugar over the apples.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 30 minutes.

Serve

Before serving, sprinkle fine sugar over the dish.

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.

Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,230 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,551 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together16,478 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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

Apples: Provide the bulk of the dish, softening into a tender, moist flesh as they bake.
Orange flower water: Adds a floral aroma that carries the flavour of the baked fruit.
Lemon: Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the apples and balances the sugar.
Fine sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the cut surfaces caramelise lightly in the oven.