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 ↓
Plain Ice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the ice cream
Place 1 pint of heavy cream in a freezing pot surrounded by ice.
Whisk the cream until it thickens and clings to the whisk.
Remove the whisk and add enough powdered sugar to cover half a crown.
Stir and scrape the mixture until fully frozen.
Shape and set
Transfer the ice cream into a mold and place it back in the ice to shape.
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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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Heavy cream
- Its high fat content gives the ice cream a rich, smooth body once frozen.
- Powdered sugar
- Adds sweetness and softens the texture by lowering the freezing point.
The step that matters
Whisking the cream until it thickens. Whipping incorporates air and builds structure in the cream, so it holds shape later. Under-whipping leaves it too loose, while over-whipping can turn it grainy and separate 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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