Name: A Gooseberry Apricot, or Apple Trifle
Ingredients: gooseberries; grated ginger; apples; grated lemon rind; apricots; lemon juice; custard

Why it works: Apple and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 777 recipes. Both carry gamma-undecalactone, which smells peach, sweet. The science ↓

A Gooseberry Apricot, or Apple Trifle

Ingredients

Directions

Scald and pulp the gooseberries, apples, or apricots through a sieve.
Sweeten the pulp to taste.
For gooseberries, add a little grated ginger; for apples, add grated lemon rind; for apricots, add lemon juice.
Layer the fruit pulp in a dish.
Pour a rich custard over the fruit layer.
Top with a froth as the final layer.

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 + apricottop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together777 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-undecalactone (peach, sweet).
Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,154 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Ginger + apricottop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together341 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ginger + appletop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,424 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Lemon + apricottop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,098 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).