Name: Persian Sherbet
Ingredients: 1 pint alcohol; 1 pint sweet orange oil; citric acid solution; 2 ounces syrup (phosphate, lemon, orange, cherry, grape, raspberry); cracked ice

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 ↓

Persian Sherbet

Ingredients

1 pint alcohol
1 pint sweet orange oil
citric acid solution
2 ounces syrup (phosphate, lemon, orange, cherry, grape, raspberry)
cracked ice

Directions

Prepare

Combine 1 pint of alcohol and 1 pint of sweet orange oil in a phosphate bottle. Color the mixture pink.
Prepare a citric acid solution in another phosphate bottle.

Make and serve

Draw 2 ounces of your chosen syrup and fill half the glass with cracked ice. Add a couple of dashes from each phosphate bottle.
Serve in small 8-ounce mineral glasses.

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).
Cherry + raspberrytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together192 recipes

Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).
Cherry + grapetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together696 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Orange + grapetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,771 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Orange + cherrytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together689 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet orange oil: Provides the main citrus aroma and flavour of the drink.
Alcohol: Carries the oil flavour and gives the drink its spirit base.
Citric acid solution: Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness of the syrup.

Swap the grape

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (orange oil, syrup, lemon, orange, cherry, raspberry):

Vanillafits better
Limefits better
Peachfits better
Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against orange oil, syrup, lemon, orange, cherry, raspberry. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.