Name: Apple Salad
Ingredients: 6 apples; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 4 tablespoons powdered sugar; ½ cup sherry

Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Apple Salad

Ingredients

6 apples
1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 tablespoons powdered sugar
½ cup sherry

Directions

Prepare

Peel, core, and slice the apples thinly.
Layer the apple slices in a glass dish.
Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon over each layer.
Repeat until all ingredients are used.
Pour the sherry over the layered apples.

Chill and serve

Chill in a cool place for 1 hour before serving.

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.

Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,598 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Apple + sherrytop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together395 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cinnamon + sherrytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together649 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together16,478 recipes

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

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

What each ingredient does

Apples: Provide the main body and fresh texture of the salad.
Powdered sugar: Adds sweetness and helps draw flavour into the apple slices.
Sherry: Adds acidity and wine aroma that moistens and flavours the layered apples.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.