Name: Macedoine De Fruits a LA Gelee
Ingredients: 1 pint wine jelly; strawberries; apricots; peaches; greengages; raisins; bottled or tinned fruits (optional)

Why it works: Apricot and peach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 342 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Macedoine De Fruits a LA Gelee

Ingredients

Directions

Dissolve the wine jelly.
Place a copper jelly-mould in a shallow pan of broken ice.
Pour in a little jelly and let it set.
Arrange a layer of fruit neatly in the mould.
Cover the fruit with jelly and let it set.
Pour in more jelly and add more layers of fruit, alternating types.
Continue layering until the mould is full, ensuring each layer is set before adding the next.
If using bottled or tinned fruits, dry each piece on a cloth before adding to the jelly.
Keep the mould on ice until fully set.
Immerse the mould in tepid water, turn it out onto a folded napkin or a plain silver dish, and serve.

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.

Apricot + peachtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together342 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Wine + apricottop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together247 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
Wine + peachtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together218 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Apricot + raisintop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together102 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Peach + raisintop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).