Name: Tutti Frutti
Ingredients: 1 gallon rich vanilla ice cream; 1½ pounds glazed fruits (cherries, apricots, pineapples, etc.); a little maraschino liqueur

Why it works: Vanilla and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 608 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Tutti Frutti

Ingredients

1 gallon rich vanilla ice cream
1½ pounds glazed fruits (cherries, apricots, pineapples, etc.)
a little maraschino liqueur

Directions

Cut the glazed fruits into small pieces.
Mix the fruits into the vanilla ice cream.
Add a little maraschino liqueur to the fruits to prevent sticking and enhance 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.

Vanilla + apricottop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together608 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
Vanilla + pineappletop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together911 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Apricot + pineappletop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together377 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Vanilla + creamtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together12,301 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Cream + pineappletop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,574 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Vanilla and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,301 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

Vanilla ice cream: Forms the creamy base that carries the fruit through the dessert.
Glazed fruits: Add sweetness and chewy texture in contrast to the smooth ice cream.
Maraschino liqueur: Adds aroma and flavor, and helps keep the fruit from sticking together.