Why it works: Arrowroot and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 553 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Ite Crtams and Gooseberry Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Scald the milk in a pot, stirring in cornstarch or arrowroot to thicken.
Beat the eggs in a bowl.
Pour the scalding milk over the eggs while stirring.
Once cooled, add sugar and essence of lemon or vanilla extract to taste, along with a pinch of salt.
Freeze in ice and salt
Pour the mixture into a deep tin pail or can that holds about 3 quarts.
Cover the can.
Place the can in a wooden water pail.
Crush ice to the size of hen's eggs.
Pack the crushed ice around the tin can, mixing in coarse salt.
Pack the ice until it nearly reaches the top of the can.
Ensure none of the ice enters the mixture.
Move the tin can around by its bail.
Lift the cover occasionally to scrape off the frozen cream.
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.
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Arrowroot + lemontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together553 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + arrowroottop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together817 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Milk
- Forms the base of the custard and carries the flavor and body of the ice cream.
- Cornstarch or arrowroot
- Thickens the scalded milk so the mixture becomes smooth and body-rich when frozen.
- Eggs
- Add richness and help set the custard, giving the frozen cream a smooth texture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, keeping the cream softer when frozen.
- Coarse salt
- Mixed with the ice to lower its temperature enough to freeze the custard.
The step that matters
Keep ice out of the mixture. Ice or salty brine entering the custard can make it grainy and salty, so the can lid must stay sealed while the ice is packed around it.
Swap the arrowroot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, sugar, lemon):
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Arrowrootthe original
- Sweet potatofits about as well
- Capsicumfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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