Name: Compote of American Crab-apples
Ingredients: very small red apples (American crab-apples); syrup

Why it works: Apple and crab work together. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 343 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Compote of American Crab-apples

Ingredients

very small red apples (American crab-apples)
syrup

Directions

Leave the stalks on the crab-apples.
Simmer the apples in syrup for 10 minutes.
Dish the apples upright in a serving bowl.
Reduce the syrup and pour it over the apples.

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.

Apple + crabtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together343 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Crab + syruptop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Apple + syruptop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together742 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).