Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
Marshmallow Frappe
Ingredients
Directions
Soak gelatine in cold water for 5 minutes, then dissolve in hot water.
Beat egg whites until very stiff, then add sugar and the dissolved gelatine, fruit, and nuts.
Place the mixture in a pan of ice water and stir until creamy.
Put the mixture on ice until set.
For the sauce, cream together sugar, egg yolks, and flour.
In a double boiler, heat milk and add the creamed mixture, stirring until creamy.
Cool the sauce and add vanilla to taste.
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.
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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Nuts + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together638 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,241 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Nuts + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,180 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
Swap the nuts
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, milk, sauce, flour, vanilla):
- Chestnutfits better
- Almondfits better
- Hazelnutfits better
- Nutsthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, milk, sauce, flour, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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