Name: Grapefruit Cocktail
Ingredients: 6 grapefruit; 1 pint maraschino cherries, cut in rings; 6 tablespoons powdered sugar; crushed ice; sherry wine

Why it works: Grapefruit and sherry work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 37 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Grapefruit Cocktail

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Remove the pulp from the grapefruit.
Add the maraschino cherries and powdered sugar to the pulp.
Chill the mixture.

Serve

Serve in cocktail glasses or the grapefruit shells.
Top with crushed ice and a splash of sherry wine.

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.

Grapefruit + sherrytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together37 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Grapefruit + winetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-p-menthene-8-thiol (grapefruit).
Sugar + sherrytop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,141 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Grapefruit + sugartop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together309 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + winetop 31% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together9,581 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Grapefruit: Provides the juicy, tart base that gives the cocktail its main flavor.
Maraschino cherries: Add sweetness, a candied fruit flavor, and bright color.
Powdered sugar: Sweetens the tart grapefruit and dissolves easily in the cold juice.
Sherry wine: Adds aroma and a deeper, slightly nutty flavor to the fruit.