Name: Ice Cream Candy
Ingredients: 1 cup sugar; 1 teaspoon cream of tartar; ⅓ cup water; Butter the size of an egg; 0 pints white sugar (assumed to be 2 pints); 1½ pints water; 2 teaspoons cream of tartar

Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Ice Cream Candy

Ingredients

Directions

In a saucepan, combine 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon cream of tartar, and ⅓ cup water.
Add butter and boil for about 15 minutes without stirring.
Remove from heat and add the extract.
In another pot, boil 2 pints of white sugar and 1½ pints of water with 2 teaspoons of cream of tartar until it ropes.
To test, drop a bit into a glass of ice water; it should stand up.
Pull the mixture until it becomes very white.

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.

Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

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