Name: Lemon and Sherry Cream
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon lemon juice; ⅓ cup sherry; 1 glass isinglass (gelatin); 1 cup heavy cream; oil for greasing the mold

Why it works: Gelatin and cream match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,628 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Lemon and Sherry Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Dissolve the isinglass in a little water.
Beat the cream until well whipped.
Oil a mold and place a little whipped cream in the bottom.
Arrange pieces of cake in the cream.
Fill the mold with the remaining whipped cream.
Let it cool, then turn it out onto a dish.

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.

Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,628 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Lemon + sherrytop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,273 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Sherry + creamtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,038 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Sherry + gelatintop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together138 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Lemon + gelatintop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,215 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).