Name: Pudding À LA Macédoine
Ingredients: various fruits (oranges, bananas, dates, figs, English walnuts); cream sauce; fruit or wine jelly; candied cherries; angelica; fresh sweetened fruit (shredded pineapple, sliced bananas, strawberries)

Why it works: Banana and fig match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 104 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Pudding À LA Macédoine

Ingredients

various fruits (oranges, bananas, dates, figs, English walnuts)
cream sauce
fruit or wine jelly
candied cherries
angelica
fresh sweetened fruit (shredded pineapple, sliced bananas, strawberries)

Directions

Prepare a jelly mixture using fruit or wine jelly.
Place a mould in a pan of ice water and pour in the jelly mixture to a depth of ½ inch.
Once firm, decorate with candied cherries and angelica.
Add more jelly mixture by spoonfuls to cover the fruit.
When this layer is firm, place a smaller mould in the center and fill it with ice water.
Gradually pour the remaining jelly mixture between the moulds.
When firm, invert to empty the smaller mould of ice water.
Pour in some tepid water and let it stand for a few seconds to remove the small mould.
Fill the space with fresh sweetened fruit.

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.

Banana + figtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together104 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Dates + figtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together318 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
Fig + walnuttop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together373 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Orange + figtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together407 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Dates + walnuttop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together302 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

Swap the dates

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (orange, banana, fig, walnut, cream, sauce, wine):

Vanillafits better
Pineapplefits better
Pearfits better
Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against orange, banana, fig, walnut, cream, sauce, wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.