Name: Plain Vanilla
Ingredients: 1 pint cream; ½ pound sugar; 1 pint cream (for mixing or 1 pint milk); vanilla extract

Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Plain Vanilla

Ingredients

1 pint cream
½ pound sugar
1 pint cream (for mixing or 1 pint milk)
vanilla extract

Directions

Make the base

Heat 1 pint of cream in a double boiler until scalding hot.
Add ½ pound of sugar and boil for 5 minutes.

Cool, flavor and freeze

Let the mixture cool, then combine it with 1 pint of cream or 1 pint of milk for a plain version.
Flavor with vanilla extract and freeze.

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.

Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together12,301 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).