Name: Diplomatic Apple Compote
Ingredients: whole apples; apricot marmalade; syrup; shelled pistachios; preserved fruits

Why it works: Apple and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 777 recipes. Both carry gamma-undecalactone, which smells peach, sweet. The science ↓

Diplomatic Apple Compote

Ingredients

Directions

Cut whole apples in half horizontally and remove the cores.
Boil the apples until tender.
Place the apples flat side down in a dish.
Cover the apples with apricot marmalade.
Pour syrup over the apples.
Chop shelled pistachios and preserved fruits, then sprinkle them over the compote.

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 + apricottop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together777 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-undecalactone (peach, sweet).
Apricot + pistachiotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together188 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Apricot + syruptop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Apple + pistachiotop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together83 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Syrup + pistachiotop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together136 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).