Name: Brandy Tutti Frutti
Ingredients: 1 quart brandy; 6 pounds sugar (3 pounds for strawberries, 3 pounds for other fruits); 3 pounds strawberries, hulled; 3 pounds cherries, pitted; 3 pounds plums, cut into pieces; 3 pounds peaches, peeled and sliced; 3 pounds apricots, peeled and sliced; 3 pounds pineapple, chopped

Why it works: Peach and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 342 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Brandy Tutti Frutti

Ingredients

1 quart brandy
6 pounds sugar (3 pounds for strawberries, 3 pounds for other fruits)
3 pounds strawberries, hulled
3 pounds cherries, pitted
3 pounds plums, cut into pieces
3 pounds peaches, peeled and sliced
3 pounds apricots, peeled and sliced
3 pounds pineapple, chopped

Directions

In a three-gallon jar, combine 1 quart of brandy and 3 pounds of sugar; stir frequently.
When strawberries are ripe, add 3 pounds of hulled strawberries and 3 pounds of sugar to the jar.
Continue to add an equal weight of fruit and sugar as each fruit comes into season.
Cover the jar tightly and store it in a cool place.
Stir the mixture daily until the jar is full.
Serve with ice cream or blancmange.

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.

Peach + apricottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together342 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Plum + apricottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together284 recipes

Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).
Plum + peachtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together163 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Apricot + pineappletop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together377 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Plum + pineappletop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together147 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-methyl-1-butanol (fusel, malty).

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

Swap the pineapple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (brandy, sugar, plum, peach, apricot):

Vanillafits better
Pearfits better
Figfits about as well
Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, sugar, plum, peach, apricot. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.