Why it works: Milk and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
Strawberry Ice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Pour scalding milk over the beaten egg and corn starch mixed with cold milk.
Stir over boiling water until it begins to thicken.
Add the strawberries and freeze
Let it cool, then mix with mashed strawberries and sugar rubbed through a colander.
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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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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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).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Corn + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,168 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 heats and adds richness to the base.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the milk mixture so it sets smoothly rather than staying thin.
- Milk
- Forms the creamy base that the custard and frozen texture are built on.
- Strawberries
- Provide the fruit flavour and colour, mashed into the cooled base.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and softens the frozen texture of the ice cream.
The step that matters
Stir over boiling water until it begins to thicken. Starch thickens only when heated, but egg can curdle or scramble if overheated. Stirring gently over simmering water, not direct heat, keeps the custard smooth while the cornstarch thickens it.
“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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