Name: Scrapple Tamale Loaf
Ingredients: 3 cups scrapple; 1 can corn; 1 can tomatoes; 1 can ripe olives; 1 large ground onion; 3 tablespoons chili powder; 1 clove garlic (optional); 2 eggs; 2 cups milk

Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Scrapple Tamale Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the filling

Combine scrapple, corn, tomatoes, olives, onion, chili powder, and garlic in a pot.
Cook for 15 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in eggs and milk.

Bake

Pour the mixture into a baking dish.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) 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.

Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,539 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,076 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Corn + tomatotop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,099 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Scrapple: Forms the base of the loaf and gives it a savory, meaty body.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and help it set firm as it bakes.
Milk: Adds moisture and softens the mixture for a tender texture.
Chili powder: Provides the spicy, tamale-like flavor that defines the dish.

Swap the clove

The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, tomato, olive, onion, garlic, egg, milk):

Cuminfits better
Basilfits better
Oreganofits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, tomato, olive, onion, garlic, egg, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.