Name: Jelly and Custard Dessert
Ingredients: 3 eggs; 1 tablespoon corn starch; Sugar to taste; Flavoring to taste; Confectioner's sugar to taste

Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Jelly and Custard Dessert

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the jelly and let it set.
Cut the jelly into squares.
Layer the jelly squares in the bottom of a dish.
Pour cold custard over the jelly, then add another layer of jelly.
Repeat until all custard is used.
Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks, adding 2-3 teaspoons of confectioner's sugar.
Place the beaten egg whites in pieces with jelly between layers.
For best results, use a tin set inside another with a little water to prevent burning.

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.

Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,168 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + corntop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,484 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).