Name: Apple Tapioca
Ingredients: 1 cup tapioca; 1 cup water; 1 pint milk; 1 egg; ½ cup sugar; ¼ teaspoon salt; 6 to 8 apples; cream for serving

Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 Tapioca

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Soak the tapioca in water overnight.
In a bowl, combine the soaked tapioca, milk, egg, sugar, and salt.
Pare and core the apples, then fill the holes with sugar.

Bake and serve

Pour the custard mixture over the apples.
Bake until the apples are tender.
Serve with cream.

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.

Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,104 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together29,399 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + appletop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together16,478 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and apple 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

Tapioca: Soaked and thickened in the custard, giving it a soft, set texture.
Egg: Helps bind the custard and set it as it bakes.
Milk: Forms the liquid base of the custard, adding richness and moisture.
Apples: Become tender while baking and soak up the custard as it cooks.
Sugar: Sweetens the custard and the apples' filling.