Name: Apricot Bouchees
Ingredients: 1 tin of apricots or 6 fresh apricots; puff pastry; loaf sugar; 1 pint of cream

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Apricot Bouchees

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

1 tin of apricots or 6 fresh apricots
puff pastry
loaf sugar
1 pint of cream

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.

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Roll out the puff pastry and cut small rounds.
Make a smaller indentation in the center of each round.
Sift powdered sugar over the rounds and bake until golden brown.
If using fresh apricots, halve them, remove the stones, and boil in syrup made from loaf sugar and a little water until tender.
When the pastry is cool, press lightly in the center to make room for the fruit.
Place an apricot hollow side up in each pastry and fill with whipped cream.

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.

Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Apricot + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,630 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Apricot + creamtop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,116 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).