Why it works: Apple and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,478 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Squab Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Cut the apples as you would for other pies.
Layer the apples in rows with mutton chops.
Shred the onions and sprinkle them among the apples and mutton.
Add some sugar to taste.
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.
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Mutton + oniontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,531 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Apple + oniontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,206 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Apple + muttontop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together278 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Mutton + sugartop 34% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together726 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
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, mutton, sugar):
- Capsicumfits better
- Carrotfits better
- Parsnipfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, mutton, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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