Name: Apricot Trifle
Ingredients: 6 sponge cakes; 4 tin apricots; 1 pint thick custard; ⅓ cup sherry (or apricot syrup); 1 cup cream; 2 teaspoons castor sugar

Why it works: Apricot and sherry work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 173 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Apricot Trifle

Ingredients

Directions

Assemble the base

Cut the sponge cakes into slices and arrange them in a glass dish.
Soak the cakes with the sherry or half the syrup from the apricots.
Pour the thick custard over the soaked cakes.

Top and decorate

Arrange the apricots in a pyramid on top of the custard.
Whip the cream and mix in the caster sugar.
Decorate the top of the trifle with the whipped cream, leaving the apricots partially exposed.

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 + sherrytop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together173 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Apricot + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,630 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sherry + creamtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,038 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Sherry + sugartop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,141 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sponge cakes: Form the base layer and soak up the sherry or syrup, giving the trifle its soft structure.
Thick custard: Adds a rich, creamy layer that moistens the sponge beneath.
Apricots: Provide fruity sweetness and acidity, with syrup adding moisture to the cakes.
Cream: Whipped to form a light, airy topping with a soft, rich texture.
Sherry: Moistens the sponge cakes and adds a mellow, aromatic flavour.