Name: How We Cook in Tennessee
Ingredients: half cup milk twenty minutes; one pint whip- ped cream add half cup pulverized sugar; one tablespoonful of wine may be added to cream; one cup of sugar; one cup of orange juice; two cups of whipped cream; a cup of cold water; a cup of boiling water; one-quarter box knox's sparkling gelatine in half cup milk twenty minutes; half cup pulverized sugar; two eggs; three table- spoonfuls of lemon juice; three eggs beaten to a stiff froth; one tablespoon; salt; lemon juice

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 ↓

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).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,157 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Wine + orangetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,046 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine: Sets the liquid mixture into a light, firm structure once cooled.
Whipped cream: Adds air and richness, giving the dessert a light, airy texture.
Eggs: Beaten egg whites add foam and lightness to the mixture.
Sugar: Sweetens the dessert and balances the tartness of citrus.

The step that matters

Do not beat too long in mixing, give a final stir.. Overbeating the mixture once the gelatin is added can deflate the whipped cream and make the texture heavy. A gentle final stir keeps the air that gives the charlotte its lightness.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cream, sugar, wine, egg, lemon):

Vanillafits better
Raspberryfits about as well
Orangethe original
Strawberryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream, sugar, wine, egg, lemon. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Orange	1 medium (131g)	62
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0

How We Cook in Tennessee