Name: Elegant Dish, Called a Charlotte
Ingredients: Thin slices of fine French or English bread; Warm clarified butter; 1 egg; Marmalade of apples (made from boiled apples and cinnamon)

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 ↓

Elegant Dish, Called a Charlotte

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Thin slices of fine French or English bread
Warm clarified butter
1 egg
Marmalade of apples (made from boiled apples and cinnamon)

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Line a well-buttered mold with thin slices of bread, about 5 inches wide.
Dip the bread slices in warm clarified butter and place them half over each other.
Cut another piece of bread to fit the bottom of the mold and dip it in butter.
Brush all the bread with beaten egg to help it adhere after baking.
Fill the mold with apple marmalade.
Cover the mold with tart paste and bake for 45 minutes.
Turn out of the mold and serve in a suitable dish.

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).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Bread + appletop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,790 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Butter + appletop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,706 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).