Name: Sweet Cream
Ingredients: 2 cups of cream; 3 tablespoons of powdered sugar; 2 teaspoons of rose-water

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Sweet Cream

Ingredients

2 cups of cream
3 tablespoons of powdered sugar
2 teaspoons of rose-water

Directions

Stir the powdered sugar into the cream until dissolved.
Add the rose-water 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.

Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Sugar + rosetop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,584 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Cream + rosetop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,086 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).