Name: Tutti Frutti
Ingredients: rich vanilla cream; candied cherries; English currants; chopped raisins; chopped citron; ice; salt

Why it works: Currant and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,180 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, creamy. The science ↓

Tutti Frutti

Ingredients

Directions

Partly freeze the rich vanilla cream.
Add an equal amount of chopped candied cherries, English currants, chopped raisins, and chopped citron.
Mould the mixture and embed it in ice and salt.

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.

Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Vanilla + raisintop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together782 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together12,301 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Vanilla + curranttop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together514 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Cream + raisintop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,642 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Vanilla and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,301 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

Rich vanilla cream: Forms the creamy, smooth base that the fruit is folded into.
Candied cherries: Add sweetness, chew and bright colour to the frozen cream.
English currants: Add small pockets of concentrated, tart-sweet fruit flavour and chew.
Chopped raisins: Add sweetness and chewy texture throughout the frozen mixture.
Chopped citron: Adds candied citrus aroma and a firm, chewy bite.