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Dessert

Almond Ice Cream

A custard-based ice cream flavored with sweet and bitter almonds, orange flower water, and corn starch.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,125 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Almond Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the infusion

  1. Heat 1 pint of cream almost to boiling.

  2. Add sugar and stir until melted.

  3. Add the almonds and simmer for 10 minutes.

  4. Remove from heat and let it stand covered for 10 minutes.

Thicken

  1. Strain the mixture and return to heat.

  2. Stir in the corn-starch mixed with cold water for 5 minutes.

Finish and freeze

  1. Let it cool, then beat lightly with an egg-whip, gradually adding the remaining cream.

  2. 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.

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. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Corn + almondtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together485 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  4. Corn + orangetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together586 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Cream + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Fresh rich cream
Provides fat and body, giving the ice cream its richness and smooth, creamy texture.
Sweet almonds
Contribute the main almond flavour as they steep in the hot cream.
Bitter almonds
Add a deeper, more intense almond aroma to the base.
Corn-starch
Thickens the custard base as it heats, giving the freezing mixture more body.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and softens the frozen texture.
Orange-flower water
Adds a floral aroma that complements the almonds.

The step that matters

Stirring in the corn-starch. Cornstarch must be stirred into hot liquid and held there while stirring, so the granules swell evenly and thicken the base without lumps. Stopping early leaves the base thin and can leave a raw starchy taste.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar, corn, almond):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, corn, almond. 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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