Name: Orange Sherbet
Ingredients: 6 oranges; 6 tablespoons granulated sugar; juice of 1 lemon; 2 tablespoons pineapple, diced very small; 2 bottles Apollinaris water; 1 block of ice

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 ↓

Orange Sherbet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

Peel the oranges, removing all rind and white skin.
Scrape the pulp from the inner membranes, saving all juice.

Make the mixture

In a bowl, combine the pulp, juice, sugar, and lemon juice. Stir until the sugar dissolves.
Add the diced pineapple and set the mixture on ice until needed.

Serve

In a punch bowl, place a block of ice and pour the mixture around it.
When ready to serve, add the Apollinaris water.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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).
Orange + pineappletop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,664 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Lemon + pineappletop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,841 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon 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

Oranges: Provide the main juice, pulp and fresh citrus flavour of the sherbet.
Granulated sugar: Sweetens the mixture and dissolves into the juice to balance its acidity.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and sharpens the orange flavour.
Apollinaris water: Adds carbonation and extra liquid, giving the drink a light, fizzy lightness when added.