Name: Grapefruit Cup
Ingredients: 4 grapefruits; small ripe berries (raspberries or strawberries); Malaga grapes; powdered sugar (to taste); maraschino cherries (or preserved cherries or strawberries)

Why it works: Grapefruit and grape work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 79 recipes. Both carry 1-p-menthene-8-thiol, which smells grapefruit. The science ↓

Grapefruit Cup

Ingredients

4 grapefruits
small ripe berries (raspberries or strawberries)
Malaga grapes
powdered sugar (to taste)
maraschino cherries (or preserved cherries or strawberries)

Directions

Prepare the grapefruit

Halve the grapefruits and carefully remove the pulp without tearing the rind.
Cut the pulp into small cubes, removing membranes and strings.
Notch the edges of the grapefruit halves with a sharp knife or scissors.

Fill and serve

Refill the halves with the grapefruit cubes, berries, and grapes, sprinkling powdered sugar over each layer.
Top with maraschino cherries.
Set in a bowl of ice until ready to serve.

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.

Grapefruit + grapetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together79 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-p-menthene-8-thiol (grapefruit).
Grape + sugartop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,490 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Grapefruit + sugartop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together309 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Grapefruits: Provide the main juicy pulp and tart flavor that forms the cup.
Powdered sugar: Sweetens the tart grapefruit and dissolves slightly into the juices.
Small ripe berries: Add sweetness, color, and aroma to the layered filling.
Malaga grapes: Add sweet juiciness and a mild texture to the fruit filling.