Name: Charlotte of Pears
Ingredients: butter for greasing; thin slices of bread; clarified butter for dipping; pear marmalade; jam of your choice; loaf sugar for dusting

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Charlotte of Pears

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.

Grease a charlotte mold with butter.
Line the mold with thin slices of bread dipped in clarified butter, ensuring they fit snugly.
Fill the mold with pear marmalade and your choice of jam.
Cover the filling with more slices of bread dipped in butter.
Place a weight on top of the mold.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 1 hour, depending on size.
Gently turn out the charlotte and dust with loaf sugar before serving hot.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Bread + peartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together64 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Butter + peartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together583 recipes

Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
Pear + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,079 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).