Name: Baba Au Rhum
Ingredients: 1½ ounces currants; rum syrup; butter for greasing; coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')

Why it works: Currant and rum work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 155 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Baba Au Rhum

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

1½ ounces currants
rum syrup
butter for greasing
coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Grease a large baba mold or small molds with butter.
Sprinkle the bottom and sides of the mold(s) with cleaned currants.
Prepare the batter as for Savarin, adding the currants and rum syrup.
Bake for 28 minutes.
Turn out the baba and baste it with hot rum syrup.
Serve hot with additional syrup poured over it.

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.

Currant + rumtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together155 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Rum + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,007 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Currant + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,856 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Rum + syruptop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together367 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Currant + syruptop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together329 recipes