Name: Tutti-frutti Ice Cream
Ingredients: 3 eggs; 1 cup sugar; 1 quart whipped cream, sweetened; 1 cup pecan meats, to taste; 1 cup strawberry preserves; 1 small bottle maraschino cherries, cut in pieces

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Tutti-frutti Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the fruit and nuts and let them stand for several hours.
Make a custard by combining milk, sugar, and eggs; cool it and add to the whipped cream.
When ready to freeze, add the fruits and nuts to the mixture.
Freeze using one measure of salt to three measures of crushed ice.
For extra flavor, pour a small amount of wine or brandy over the fruit while it stands.

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.

Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Cream + strawberrytop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,525 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + strawberrytop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,060 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + meattop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,432 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).