Why it works: Vanilla and strawberry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,385 recipes. Both carry p-vinylguaiacol, which smells spicy, fruity. The science ↓
Imitation Brick Ice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Moisten the gelatine in a little water until dissolved.
Add boiling water and sugar to the gelatine, then bring to a boil.
Beat in the egg whites until frothy.
Continue beating until cool and stiff.
Layer and set
Divide the mixture into three sections.
Flavor the first section with vanilla.
Spread the first section in an oblong pan.
Sprinkle the top of the first section with chopped nuts.
Color the second section with fruit or vegetable coloring.
Flavor the second section with strawberry or lemon.
Spread the second section over the first section.
Sprinkle the second section with nuts.
Flavor the third section the same as the first.
Spread the third section over the second section.
Set the pan on ice until firm.
Serve
Serve with whipped cream.
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.
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Vanilla + strawberrytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,385 recipes
Shared aroma: p-vinylguaiacol (spicy, fruity).
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Vanilla + nutstop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together638 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Strawberry + creamtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,525 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
- Gelatine
- Sets the mixture into a firm, sliceable block as it cools.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into foam, they give the dessert a light, airy texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the layers and helps balance the flavor of the egg whites.
The step that matters
Continue beating until cool and stiff.. The egg whites must be beaten until they hold stiff peaks while the gelatine mixture cools. If the mixture is still warm or the whites are under-beaten, the foam collapses and the layers lose their airy structure.
Swap the nuts
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, vanilla, strawberry, cream):
- Almondfits better
- Chestnutfits better
- Hazelnutfits better
- Nutsthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, vanilla, strawberry, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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