Name: Fruit Trifle
Ingredients: 4 egg whites; 2 tablespoons sugar; 2 tablespoons currant jelly; 2 tablespoons raspberry jam; sponge cakes

Why it works: Currant and raspberry work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 366 recipes. Both carry ethyl benzoate, which smells fruity, sweet. The science ↓

Fruit Trifle

Ingredients

Directions

Beat the egg whites until stiff.
Fold in the sugar, currant jelly, and raspberry jam.
Layer the mixture with sponge cakes in a serving dish.

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.

Currant + raspberrytop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together366 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).
Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + raspberrytop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,101 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Egg + raspberrytop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,778 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Egg + curranttop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,734 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).