Why it works: Cream and chocolate are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,466 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Ice Creams
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cream
Place cream in pewter ice pots and cover with a folded paper to secure it.
Put the pot in a pail and surround it with pounded ice mixed with coarse sea salt.
Freeze
Turn the pot briskly using the handle.
Open the pot every 5-6 minutes, scrape down the frozen cream from the sides, and stir well.
When the mixture is like butter, transfer it to molds or serve in glasses.
Make fruit and flavored variations
Blend 2 pounds of fresh fruit with 1 pint of syrup and 1 pint of water.
Alternatively, use 1 pound of preserved fruit with 1 pint of water.
For flavored ices, use custard flavored with chocolate, coffee, ginger, vanilla, or liqueurs and freeze as above.
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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Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,466 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cream + syruptop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,964 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Syrup + chocolatetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,239 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cream
- Freezes into a rich, smooth base that becomes creamy as it is churned.
- Coarse sea salt
- Lowers the temperature of the ice bath so the cream can freeze.
- Fresh fruit
- Adds flavor, sweetness and fruit body to the frozen mixture.
- Custard
- Gives a richer, smoother texture to the frozen flavored ice.
The step that matters
Scraping down the frozen cream. Ice crystals form on the cold sides of the pot. Scraping and stirring every 5-6 minutes breaks them up, keeping the texture smooth rather than icy.
“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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