Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓
Strawberry Ice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard base
Pour scalding milk over the beaten egg and corn-starch mixed with cold milk.
Stir over boiling water until it begins to thicken.
Let it cool, then mix with the mashed strawberries and sugar rubbed through a colander.
Finish and freeze
Add sweet cream and freeze as usual.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Egg
- Thickens the custard as it cooks and adds richness to the base.
- Corn-starch
- Thickens the milk mixture when heated, giving the ice cream a smooth body.
- Strawberries
- Provide the main flavour and colour, and their pulp adds body to the mix.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice cream soft and scoopable.
- Sweet cream
- Adds fat, which makes the ice cream rich and creamy in texture.
The step that matters
Stir over boiling water until it begins to thicken. The egg and corn-starch thicken as they heat, but if the mixture is overheated the egg can scramble and curdle. Stirring steadily and stopping once it just begins to thicken keeps the custard 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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