Name: Raspberry and Currant Ice Cream
Ingredients: 1 pound strawberries; ½ pound red currants; ¾ pound powdered sugar; 1 pint cream

Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓

Raspberry and Currant Ice Cream

Ingredients

1 pound strawberries
½ pound red currants
¾ pound powdered sugar
1 pint cream

Directions

Prepare

Prepare the strawberries and red currants.
Pass the fruit through a sieve.

Make and freeze

Mix the fruit puree with the powdered sugar and cream.
Freeze the mixture.

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.

Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Red currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,156 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Red currant + creamtop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together247 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Strawberries: Provides the main fruit flavor and moisture for the puree.
Red currants: Adds tartness that balances the sweetness of the sugar.
Powdered sugar: Adds sweetness and softens the texture of the frozen ice cream.
Cream: Adds fat, which makes the ice cream rich and smooth.