Name: Ginger Sherbet
Ingredients: ½ pound muscatel raisins, minced; 2 ounces fine ginger, bruised; rind and juice of 2 lemons; 2 pounds loaf sugar; 4 quarts boiling water

Why it works: Ginger and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Ginger Sherbet

Ingredients

½ pound muscatel raisins, minced
2 ounces fine ginger, bruised
rind and juice of 2 lemons
2 pounds loaf sugar
4 quarts boiling water

Directions

Combine minced raisins, bruised ginger, lemon rind, lemon juice, and loaf sugar in a jar.
Pour boiling water over the mixture and let it sit for 24 hours.
Strain the mixture through muslin.
When cold, bottle the ginger sherbet.

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.

Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,154 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Raisin + gingertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,242 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Raisin + lemontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,742 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ginger + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together14,054 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Ginger and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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

Muscatel raisins: Add fruit sweetness and body, and their minced pieces release flavour into the infusion.
Fine ginger: Provides the main spicy, aromatic flavour of the sherbet.
Lemons: Add acidity and bright citrus aroma from the rind and juice.
Loaf sugar: Provides sweetness and helps preserve the drink.