Name: Apple Turnovers
Ingredients: 4 ounces lard, suet, or dripping; 8 ounces all-purpose flour; ½ cup water; baking apples, cut small; moist sugar (equal to half the weight of apples)

Why it works: Flour and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓

Apple Turnovers

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

4 ounces lard, suet, or dripping
8 ounces all-purpose flour
½ cup water
baking apples, cut small
moist sugar (equal to half the weight of apples)

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the pastry

Make a paste by mixing the fat with flour and water.
Roll the paste out to ¼ inch thick and cut into 4‑inch squares.

Fill and shape

In the center of each square, place a pile of small‑cut baking apples mixed with moist sugar.
Gather the edges of the paste, press them together, and mark with a pastry wheel.

Bake

Place on a floured baking sheet and bake in a moderate oven (350°F) for 30 minutes.

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.

Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together16,478 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Flour + appletop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,140 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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

Lard, suet, or dripping: Provides fat that makes the paste tender and flaky as it bakes.
All-purpose flour: Forms the structure of the paste so it holds the filling when baked.
Baking apples: Supply the main filling, softening and releasing juices as they bake.
Moist sugar: Sweetens the apples and adds moisture to the filling.