Name: Orange Sherbet
Ingredients: juice of 20 oranges; juice of 12 lemons; 6 pints rock candy syrup; ½ ounce citric acid; whites of 2 eggs; grated rind of 3 oranges; orange food coloring

Why it works: Orange and lemon 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 ↓

Orange Sherbet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Squeeze the juice from the oranges and lemons.
In a large bowl, combine the orange juice, lemon juice, rock candy syrup, citric acid, and egg whites.
Grate the rinds of the oranges and add to the mixture.
Color the mixture with orange food coloring.

Freeze

Freeze the mixture until solid.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together44,316 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Lemon + syruptop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,235 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Orange + syruptop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,179 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Orange + eggtop 31% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together10,696 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Lemon and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites: Add foam and a smooth, creamy body to the frozen texture.
Citric acid: Adds tartness that balances the sweetness of the syrup.
Rock candy syrup: Provides sweetness and controls how firmly the sherbet freezes.
Orange juice: Supplies the main orange flavor and liquid base.