Name: Rice a LA Parisienne
Ingredients: 12 large or 18 small oranges; ½ cup brandy; 1 pint water; ½ lb white sugar; 1 pint double cream; vanilla extract (to taste); carmine (for coloring)

Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 35,031 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

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

Directions

Boil the lemon and one orange rinds with sugar and water for 15 minutes.
Peel the remaining oranges thickly, removing all skin and pips.
Cut each orange into segments, ensuring no skin is attached.
Strain the hot syrup over the orange pulp and add brandy. Let steep for 1 hour.
Drain the fruit and fill the centers of the puddings.
Whip the cream until stiff, flavor with vanilla, and sweeten to taste.
Add a few drops of carmine to the cream and mix for a mottled effect.
Use a piping bag to decorate the top of the oranges and the base of the pudding.

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.

Sugar + vanillatop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together35,031 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Orange + vanillatop 4% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together2,371 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Brandy + vanillatop 4% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + creamtop 5% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together43,437 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Orange + brandytop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together2,705 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and vanilla share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,031 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 orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (brandy, sugar, cream, vanilla):

Strawberrybetter flavor fit
Apricotbetter flavor fit
Raspberrybetter flavor fit
Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, sugar, cream, vanilla. 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).