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 ↓
Ice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
If using fresh fruit, mash it and sprinkle with pounded sugar to extract juice.
If using jam, melt it and strain through a sieve before adding to the whipped cream.
Make the ice cream
Whip the heavy cream until soft peaks form.
Combine the fruit or jam with the whipped cream.
If desired, add melted isinglass to help the mixture hold its shape.
Pour the mixture into a pot and freeze, stirring every 30 minutes for even freezing.
Freeze for about 1 hour until smooth and firm.
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).
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Raspberry + beetroottop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Cream + raspberrytop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,332 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + beetroottop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together780 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Sugar + raspberrytop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,101 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
- Whipped into a foam that gives the ice cream its light, rich body.
- Pounded sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and draws out its juice when sprinkled over mashed fruit.
- Fresh fruit or jam
- Provides flavour, colour and fruit juice to the cream base.
- Isinglass
- Helps the mixture hold its shape as it sets.
The step that matters
Stirring while freezing. Stirring every 30 minutes breaks up ice crystals as they form, keeping the texture smooth rather than grainy or icy. Freezing without stirring lets larger crystals grow.
Swap the beetroot
The recipe marks beetroot as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar, raspberry):
- Arrowrootfits about as well
- Beetrootthe original
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Sweet potatofits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, raspberry. 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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