Name: Apple Ice
Ingredients: 2 cups fresh stewed apples, sieved; 6 tablespoons sugar; 2 egg whites; 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Why it works: Apple and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,551 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Apple Ice

Ingredients

2 cups fresh stewed apples, sieved
6 tablespoons sugar
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Directions

Sieve the fresh stewed apples until smooth.
In a bowl, combine the apple sauce, sugar, and beaten egg whites.
Beat the mixture together with a fork until well combined.
Add lemon juice to flavor and mix well.

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.

Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,551 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together16,478 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together44,316 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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

Egg whites: Whipped or beaten whites add airy lightness and help the ice set with a light, frothy texture.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and softens the icy texture by lowering the freezing point.
Stewed apples: Provide the main apple flavor and body, giving the ice its base and moisture.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the apple flavor and balances the sweetness.