Name: Apple Cream
Ingredients: 1 quart apples; 1 quart rich cream; essence of lemon; sugar to taste

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Apple Cream

Ingredients

1 quart apples
1 quart rich cream
essence of lemon
sugar to taste

Directions

Prepare the apples

Boil the apples until soft.
Run the apples through a sieve to remove skins and cores.

Make the cream

Flavor the mixture with essence of lemon and add sugar to taste.
Stir the rich cream into the apple mixture thoroughly.
Freeze the mixture until solid.

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.

Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,551 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together16,478 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Apple + creamtop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,089 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Apples: Provide the main fruit flavour and body once cooked and sieved into a purée.
Rich cream: Adds fat and richness, giving the dessert a smooth, creamy texture.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the apples.

The step that matters

Stir the rich cream into the apple mixture thoroughly. Cream must be fully blended into the purée so no streaks or lumps remain. Even distribution of fat gives a smooth texture after freezing, and uneven mixing leaves a grainy or separated result.