Name: Melon Water Ice
Ingredients: 1 medium ripe melon, pounded; 1 pint syrup; juice of 1 lemon; a few drops of vanilla extract; a few drops of cochineal (for color)

Why it works: Melon and vanilla work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 54 recipes. Both carry piperonal, which smells bitter, coconut. The science ↓

Melon Water Ice

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Pound the pulp of the melon until smooth.
In a bowl, combine the pounded melon, syrup, lemon juice, vanilla extract, and cochineal, then mix well.

Freeze and serve

Freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.
Once frozen, serve immediately or store in a mold until 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.

Melon + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together54 recipes

Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
Syrup + vanillatop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,855 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Melon + lemontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together362 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Lemon + vanillatop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,961 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Syrup + lemontop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,235 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Melon: Provides the main fruit flavor and most of the body of the water ice.
Syrup: Adds sweetness and, by lowering the freezing point, keeps the ice soft rather than rock-hard.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the melon flavor and balances the sweetness.