Name: Sorbet
Ingredients: juice of lemons; apple-green coloring; 2 glasses of brandy (or maraschino); sorbet cups or small tumblers

Why it works: Apple and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,291 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Sorbet

Ingredients

juice of lemons
apple-green coloring
2 glasses of brandy (or maraschino)
sorbet cups or small tumblers

Directions

Cook the mixture until quite soft.
Add the strained juice of the lemons and enough apple-green coloring to achieve a pretty color.
Rub the mixture through a fine sieve.
Prepare the freezing machine and pour in the mixture, then partly freeze.
When partly frozen, add the brandy (or maraschino).
Freeze well until it reaches a dry state.
Chill the sorbet cups or tumblers in a cool place.
Divide the sorbet into the chilled glasses and serve immediately on lace papers.

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.

Apple + brandytop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,291 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Lemon + appletop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,551 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Lemon + brandytop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,351 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).