Name: White Chocolate Water Ice
Ingredients: 8 ounces cocoa; ½ pint boiling water; small piece of cinnamon; 24 ounces sugar (in syrup)

Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

White Chocolate Water Ice

Ingredients

8 ounces cocoa
½ pint boiling water
small piece of cinnamon
24 ounces sugar (in syrup)

Directions

Prepare and infuse

Roast the cocoa to remove the skin.
Infuse the roasted cocoa in boiling water with cinnamon, covering the mixture.

Strain and cool

Strain the mixture through a sieve.
Let it cool.

Finish and freeze

Add the sugar syrup to the cooled mixture.
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 + syruptop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cocoa + cinnamontop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together74 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Cinnamon + syruptop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together990 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Cocoa + sugartop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together956 recipes

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

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Cocoa: Provides the chocolate flavour and colour, released into the hot water during infusion.
Boiling water: Acts as the liquid base that extracts flavour from the roasted cocoa.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice softer and smoother.
Cinnamon: Adds a warm aroma that flavours the infused liquid.