Name: Floating Islands
Ingredients: 1 quart of cream; 5 egg whites; ½ pound of powdered sugar; 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract; Wine to taste; 1 quart of milk; ½ pound of powdered sugar (for the island); Currant jelly (to taste)

Why it works: Vanilla and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Floating Islands

Ingredients

Directions

Whisk the egg whites until frothy.
Gradually add the powdered sugar, one teaspoon at a time, and flavor with vanilla.
Sweeten and flavor the cream with wine to taste.
Pour the cream into a bowl or dish.
For the island, beat the egg whites and gradually add the powdered sugar and currant jelly until pink.
Pour the milk into a glass bowl.
Using a tablespoon, place the island on top of the milk in heaps, arranged tastefully.

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 + milktop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,187 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Wine + curranttop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,323 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together12,301 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, egg, sugar, vanilla, wine, milk):

Strawberryfits better
Figfits better
Raspberryfits better
Currantthe original

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