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Dessert

Cranberry Ice

A frozen dessert made from cranberries, orange and pineapple juice, sugar, and folded egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Cranberry Ice

Why it works: Orange and pineapple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,664 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Cranberry Ice

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Scald the cranberries until they pop and mash easily.

  2. Squeeze and strain the cranberries.

  3. Add the juice of the oranges and pineapple, and the sugar.

Finish and freeze

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the mixture.

  2. Freeze the mixture until solid.

Serve

  1. Serve in sherbet cups, garnished with clove pinks or holly berries.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

  1. Orange + pineappletop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,664 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Pineapple + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,841 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Pineapple + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Orange and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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

Cranberries
Provide the main flavor and tartness, and their pectin helps give the ice body.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they add lightness and airy texture to the frozen mixture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and softens the texture by keeping ice crystals smaller.
Orange juice
Adds citrus acidity and bright flavor that balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites until stiff. Stiff peaks trap air that gives the ice its light, airy texture. Underbeaten whites collapse and make the mixture dense, while overbeaten whites turn grainy and are harder to fold in smoothly.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pineapple, sugar, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Bananafits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pineapple, sugar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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