Name: Special Fruit Frosting
Ingredients: 1½ cups powdered sugar; 1 tablespoon butter, creamed; 2 tablespoons orange or lemon juice; Grated peel of orange or lemon, or; Grated pineapple, crushed berries, or banana

Why it works: Orange and pineapple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,664 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Special Fruit Frosting

Ingredients

1½ cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon butter, creamed
2 tablespoons orange or lemon juice
Grated peel of orange or lemon, or
Grated pineapple, crushed berries, or banana

Directions

Cream the butter until smooth.
Gradually add the powdered sugar, mixing well.
Stir in the orange or lemon juice and grated peel.
Mix in grated pineapple, crushed berries, or banana.

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 + pineappletop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,664 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Butter + pineappletop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,134 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar + pineappletop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,841 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

Sugar and orange barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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

Powdered sugar: Dissolves into the butter to give the frosting sweetness and body.
Butter: Creamed to provide fat that makes the frosting smooth and spreadable.
Orange or lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and gives the frosting its citrus flavor.