Name: Currant Ice Cream
Ingredients: 1 pint of cream; ½ cup of sugar; ⅓ cup of wine; ⅓ cup of grape syrup; optional: a few raspberries or strawberries

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 ↓

Currant Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the cream, sugar, wine, and grape syrup together.
If the mixture does not freeze quickly, add a little more milk.
Freeze the mixture until firm.
Optionally, add raspberries or strawberries for extra flavor.

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).
Wine + grapetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together819 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-p-menthene-8-thiol (grapefruit).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Cream + syruptop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,964 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Cream + winetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,887 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).