Name: Fancy Lemonade
Ingredients: 14 oz simple syrup; juice of 1 lemon; plenty of cracked ice; carbonated water to fill; thin slices of lemon; thin slices of orange; 3 red cherries; small ladle of crushed pineapple

Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Fancy Lemonade

Ingredients

Directions

Assemble the drink

Pour 14 oz of simple syrup into a 12 oz soda glass.
Squeeze in the juice of 1 lemon.
Add plenty of cracked ice.
Fill the glass with carbonated water.
Stir well.

Decorate and serve

Decorate with thin slices of lemon and orange, 3 red cherries, and a small ladle of crushed pineapple.

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.

Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Orange + pineappletop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,664 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Syrup + pineappletop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together568 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Syrup + lemontop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,235 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).