Name: Iced Biscuits a LA Charles Dickens
Ingredients: ½ cup maraschino liqueur; 15 egg yolks; 2 oz chocolate drops; 1 pint double cream, whipped; 1 pint syrup (32 degrees strength); 3 cups peach pulp; ⅓ cup noyeau; a few drops of vanilla extract; chocolate water ice (made with ½ pint syrup and 4 oz best chocolate)

Why it works: Peach and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 558 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Iced Biscuits a LA Charles Dickens

Ingredients

½ cup maraschino liqueur
15 egg yolks
2 oz chocolate drops
1 pint double cream, whipped
1 pint syrup (32 degrees strength)
3 cups peach pulp
⅓ cup noyeau
a few drops of vanilla extract
chocolate water ice (made with ½ pint syrup and 4 oz best chocolate)

Directions

Mix the maraschino liqueur and egg yolks, then strain into a warmed bowl.
Add peach pulp, noyeau, and vanilla; whisk until creamy.
Whisk over hot water for 10 minutes.
Fold in chocolate drops and whipped cream.
Lightly fill a case with the mixture and set it in a tub of crushed ice and salt.
After 2 hours, remove the case and cover the surface with powdered baked savoy biscuit.
Serve immediately.

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 + vanillatop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together558 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,020 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,466 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cream + syruptop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,964 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Syrup + vanillatop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,855 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Swap the peach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, chocolate, cream, syrup, vanilla):

Raspberryfits better
Strawberryfits better
Coconutfits better
Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, chocolate, cream, syrup, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.