Name: Orange Albumen
Ingredients: 1 egg white; 2 oz. orange juice; ⅓ cup crushed ice; 3 teaspoons sugar

Why it works: Orange and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,212 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Orange Albumen

Ingredients

1 egg white
2 oz. orange juice
⅓ cup crushed ice
3 teaspoons sugar

Directions

Beat the egg white slightly.
Add the crushed ice, sugar, and orange juice.
Serve cold.

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.

Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together19,212 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + orangetop 31% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together10,696 recipes

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

Orange and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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 white: Whipped lightly, it adds a foamy, airy body to the drink.
Orange juice: Provides the main flavour and liquid, with its acidity giving a bright taste.
Sugar: Adds sweetness to balance the tartness of the orange juice.