Name: Brandy Jviinced Pies
Ingredients: 1 pound currants; 1 pound nonpareil apples, minced; 1 pound fresh beef suet, minced; 1 pound loaf sugar, pounded; peel of 2 lemons, grated; juice of 1 lemon; ¼ pound citron, minced; ¼ pound orange peel, minced; 1 quart brandy

Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Brandy Jviinced Pies

Ingredients

Directions

Glean and prepare the currants, apples, and suet.
Pound the loaf sugar until fine.
Grate the peel of two lemons and squeeze the juice from one.
Mince the citron and orange peel.
Mix all ingredients well with the brandy.

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.

Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,230 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Apple + brandytop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,291 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Currant + appletop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,918 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, beef, sugar, lemon, orange, brandy):

Figfits better
Apricotfits better
Blackberryfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, beef, sugar, lemon, orange, brandy. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.