Why it works: Meat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,703 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓
Cherry Ice with Nut Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cherry ice
Remove the pits from the cherries.
Strain the juice into a freezer.
Boil the cherry pulp with some sugar and water to extract flavor.
Strain the pulp.
Combine the cherry juice, remaining water, and sugar.
Freeze the mixture.
Make the nut cream
Pick over the nuts to remove shell fragments.
Pound the nuts with part of the sugar and a few tablespoons of milk.
Mix the nut pulp with the remaining milk, sugar, and burnt sugar for coloring.
Strain the mixture into a freezer.
Freeze as usual.
Pack the nut cream down with ice to freeze firm.
Assemble and serve
Line molds with cherry ice and fill the center with nut cream.
Serve in glasses with cherry ice as a border.
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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Meat + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,703 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
-
Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Sugar + meattop 34% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,866 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar and milk 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
- Sweet cherries
- Provide the main fruit flavor and the color of the cherry ice.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the ice and lowers its freezing point so it stays softer.
- Pecan or hickory nut meats
- Supply the rich, nutty flavor and body of the nut cream.
- Rich milk or cream
- Adds fat and creaminess, giving the nut cream a smooth, tender texture.
The step that matters
Pack the nut cream down with ice to freeze firm. Ice-cream mixtures freeze slowly and form large ice crystals if the cold is uneven or too gentle, which gives a coarse, icy texture. Packing the mould well with ice keeps the cream cold and frozen firm and smooth.
“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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