Name: Banana Ice Cream
Ingredients: 3 pints cream; 1½ cups sugar; 2 egg whites; ½ cup powdered sugar; 6 medium-sized bananas

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Banana Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the bananas

Peel the bananas and cut them in half lengthwise, then slice them.
Place the sliced bananas in a dish and cover them with powdered sugar.

Make and freeze the ice cream

Dissolve the sugar in the cream, then add the beaten egg whites.
Place the mixture in a freezer and freeze until ready to remove from the freezer.
Stir in the prepared bananas, pack down, and set aside until ready to use.

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.

Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Sugar + bananatop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,102 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Cream + bananatop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,180 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together42,166 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Cream: Provides fat and richness, giving the frozen dessert a smooth, creamy texture.
Egg whites: Whipped into the mixture to add air and a lighter, more tender structure.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice cream softer when frozen.
Bananas: Supply the main flavor and moisture, and their sugar draws out juice when covered.