Name: Floating Island
Ingredients: calf's-foot jelly; gum-water or egg white; green-shot comfits; myrtle sprig or other green sprig; apple paste

Why it works: Myrtle and apple work together. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Floating Island

Ingredients

Directions

Break the set calf's-foot jelly slightly without making it frothy.
Rub a medium-sized turnip with gum-water or egg white.
Thickly sprinkle the turnip with green-shot comfits.
Place a sprig of myrtle or another green sprig on top of the turnip.
Surround the turnip with the broken jelly.
Decorate with sheep or swans made of jelly, using a green leaf or knot of apple paste underneath to prevent melting.

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.

Myrtle + appletop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together16 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Egg + appletop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,461 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Egg + myrtletop 39% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together41 recipes