Name: Cherry Cup
Ingredients: 1 quart stoned and bruised cherries; juice of 4 lemons; grated rind of 1 lemon; 1 cup sugar; 1 quart water; 1 pint claret; shaved ice; fine cherries, cut small; sprig of green borage

Why it works: Lemon and borage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 102 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Cherry Cup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the punch base

In a bowl, combine the cherries, lemon juice, lemon rind, sugar, and water.
Let the mixture stand for one hour, then strain it.

Chill and serve

Add the claret and set the mixture on ice.
Serve in punch glasses with handles, adding a spoonful of shaved ice, a few small cut cherries, and a sprig of green borage to each glass.

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 + boragetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together102 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + boragetop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together129 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

Cherries: Provide the main fruit flavor and color, with juice released during standing.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the punch and balances the sugar.
Claret: Adds wine body and depth of flavor to the punch.