Name: Ice Cream and Water Ices
Ingredients: orange juice; lemon juice; milk; a pinch of saffron; a little alcohol

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 ↓

Ice Cream and Water Ices

Ingredients

Directions

Combine orange juice and lemon juice in a bowl.
Just before freezing, add the milk.
Dissolve a pinch of saffron in a little alcohol and add for color.
Serve the mixture in orange skins.

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).
Lemon + saffrontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together538 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Orange + saffrontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together185 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk + saffrontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together319 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).