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Tea Ice Cream

A chilled dessert made by infusing cream with Old Hyson tea, eggs, and sugar, then freezing.

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

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Tea Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tea cream

  1. Pour 1 pint of cream over ½ cup of Old Hyson tea, cover, and let it scald over boiling water for a few minutes.

  2. Remove from heat and let it stand for 5 minutes.

  3. Strain the mixture into 1 pint of cold cream.

  4. Return the mixture to boiling water and heat until scalding.

Finish and freeze

  1. Gradually mix in 4 beaten eggs and ¾ pound of sugar.

  2. Once cold, freeze the mixture.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. Cream + teatop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together463 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Tea + sugartop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,204 recipes

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

Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Cream
Provides fat and richness, giving the ice cream a smooth, creamy texture.
Eggs
Thicken the custard base and add richness and structure as they gently heat.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice cream softer when frozen.
Old hyson tea
Infuses the cream with its flavour during scalding.

The step that matters

Return the mixture to boiling water and heat until scalding. Egg yolks and whole eggs can curdle or scramble if overheated. Heat gently and keep the mixture below a boil while it thickens, stirring so it stays smooth.

“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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