Name: Sloe Gin Fizz
Ingredients: 3 dashes lemon juice; ¼ tablespoon sugar; ¼ cup sloe gin; club soda

Why it works: Lemon and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Sloe Gin Fizz

Ingredients

3 dashes lemon juice
¼ tablespoon sugar
¼ cup sloe gin
club soda

Directions

Fill a mixing glass half full of ice.
Add lemon juice, sugar, and sloe gin.
Shake well and strain into a glass.
Fill the glass with club soda.

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.

Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + gintop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together344 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Lemon + gintop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together306 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Sloe gin: Provides the main flavor and fruity sweetness that defines the drink.
Sugar: Adds sweetness to balance the tartness of the lemon juice and the gin.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the drink and balances the sweetness.