Name: Tutti-fruitti Ice Cream
Ingredients: ¼ lb crystalized cherries; ¼ lb crystalized pineapple; ¼ lb crystalized figs; 2 quarts cream; ¼ lb citron; 1 cup powdered sugar; ¼ lb blanched almonds; ⅓ cup maraschino

Why it works: Fig and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 519 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Tutti-fruitti Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

Whip the cream until soft peaks form.
Add the powdered sugar and mix well.
Freeze the cream mixture until nearly solid.

Add the fruit and set

Fold in the crystallized fruits, blanched almonds, and maraschino.
Return to the freezer until fully set.

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.

Fig + almondtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together519 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Pineapple + figtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together100 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Pineapple + almondtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together428 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Fig + sugartop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,241 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cream: Whipped and frozen, it forms the rich, smooth body of the ice cream.
Powdered sugar: Sweetens the base and dissolves easily into the cream for a smooth texture.
Maraschino: Adds liqueur flavour and a little alcohol, which keeps the ice cream softer when frozen.
Blanched almonds: Add crunch and nutty flavour against the smooth frozen cream.
Crystallized fruits (in the method): Provide chewy sweetness, colour and fruity flavour throughout the ice cream.

The step that matters

Freezing until nearly solid before folding in fruit. If the base is too soft, the fruit and almonds sink and settle unevenly. If it is frozen too hard, it is difficult to fold in without deflating the whipped cream. Partial freezing gives a base firm enough to hold the mix-ins evenly.

Swap the pineapple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fig, cream, sugar, almond):

Vanillafits better
Apricotfits better
Peachfits better
Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fig, cream, sugar, almond. 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.

Pineapple Sherbet116 recipes

Pineapple Pudding72 recipes

Pineapple Cream58 recipes

Pineapple Jelly39 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Tutti-fruitti Ice Cream