Name: Fruit Sherbet
Ingredients: juice of 2 oranges; juice of 2 lemons; 1 pint of cream; 1 cup of sugar syrup (or less, depending on the fruit)

Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Fruit Sherbet

Ingredients

juice of 2 oranges
juice of 2 lemons
1 pint of cream
1 cup of sugar syrup (or less, depending on the fruit)

Directions

Strain the juice of the oranges and lemons.
Add the cream and sugar syrup to the strained juice.
Freeze the mixture until solid.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together19,212 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Orange + creamtop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,170 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Orange juice: Adds bright acidity and the main fruit flavor.
Lemon juice: Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and brightens the flavor.
Cream: Adds fat and richness, giving a smoother, creamier texture.
Sugar syrup: Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, keeping the sherbet softer when frozen.