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Dessert

Macaroon Ice Cream

A frozen dessert made with heavy cream, milk, sugar, sherry‑soaked macaroons, and a pinch of salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Macaroon Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Roll the macaroons and soak them in sherry for several hours.

Make and freeze

  1. Beat the heavy cream until stiff, then add the sugar dissolved in milk.

  2. Combine the cream mixture with the soaked macaroons and add a few grains of salt.

  3. Freeze the mixture, then pack it in salt and ice, and let it stand for one hour.

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

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

  2. Milk + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  3. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Milk + winetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (fenugreek, curry).

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

Dried macaroons
Provide the main flavor and body, softening as they soak in sherry.
Heavy cream
Adds fat and richness, and beating it creates a light, airy structure.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and keeps the frozen texture softer.
Sherry wine
Adds aroma and flavor while softening the macaroons.

The step that matters

Beat the cream until stiff. Whipping cream traps air that gives the frozen ice cream a light texture. Overbeating can turn the cream grainy, while underbeating leaves the mixture dense and watery.

“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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