Why it works: Bread and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,084 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Pumpkin Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Cut stale bread into thin slices and place in a tureen.
Pour the soup over the bread.
Add orange flower water and sugar if desired.
Serve hot.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Bread + orangetop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,084 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Bread + sugartop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,638 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Orange and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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
Swap the orange
The recipe marks orange as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Datesfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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