Name: Macedoine De Fruits
Ingredients: Champagne (for jelly); small fresh fruits (strawberries, raspberries, cherries, sliced apricots, or peaches); sections of skinned and seeded oranges; preserved or brandied fruits (preferably); cold water

Why it works: Apricot and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 703 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Macedoine De Fruits

Ingredients

Champagne (for jelly)
small fresh fruits (strawberries, raspberries, cherries, sliced apricots, or peaches)
sections of skinned and seeded oranges
preserved or brandied fruits (preferably)
cold water

Directions

Make very clear wine jelly using Champagne.
Rinse the mold in cold water.
Pour jelly into the mold to a depth of ½ inch and set on ice to harden.
Keep the remaining jelly cool but not hardening.
Once the jelly in the mold is set, lay in some fruit neatly.
Pour just enough jelly over the fruit to barely cover it.
Set aside again to harden.
Repeat the layering process until the mold is filled.
If desired, alternate layers with plain jelly.
Once full, set aside for several hours to harden well.
If any plain jelly is left, set it aside, and when it begins to stiffen, beat it to a froth.
Serve the frothy jelly around the Macedoine or set it in shallow dishes to crumb and heap around the base when ready to serve.

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.

Apricot + orangetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together703 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Champagne + apricottop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Champagne + orangetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together260 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).