Name: Everlasting Syllabubs
Ingredients: 5 pints thick cream; ½ pint Rhenish wine; ½ pint sack (sweet wine); juice of 2-3 Seville oranges; 1 pound double refined sugar, powdered and sifted; 1 tablespoon rose or orange water

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 ↓

Everlasting Syllabubs

Ingredients

5 pints thick cream
½ pint Rhenish wine
½ pint sack (sweet wine)
juice of 2-3 Seville oranges
1 pound double refined sugar, powdered and sifted
1 tablespoon rose or orange water

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the cream, Rhenish, sack, and orange juice.
Sweeten the mixture with the powdered sugar.
Whisk everything together with a spoon for about 30 minutes without stopping.
Remove the froth and fill your glasses with it.
Store the syllabubs in the refrigerator; they are best used the day after making.

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).
Orange + rosetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together876 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Wine + orangetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,046 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together438 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Cream + winetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,887 recipes

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