Name: American Sherbet
Ingredients: cold, pure water; fruit syrup; wine; orange juice or lemon juice; pounded ice

Why it works: Wine and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,046 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

American Sherbet

Ingredients

Directions

Secure tin molds to imitate high-shaped wineglasses and fill them with cold water.
Close the molds securely and pack them in pounded ice.
Mix equal quantities of fruit syrup, wine, and orange or lemon juice.
Pour the mixture into a freezing pot and work it until frozen but not too firm.
When the water has frozen enough, turn it out carefully and drain any liquid that hasn't frozen.
Fill the ice glasses with the frozen syrup, piling it up high.
Stand the glasses on a fancy dish and serve.

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.

Wine + orangetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,046 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Syrup + orangetop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,179 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Syrup + winetop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together381 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).