Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓
Caramel Ice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the caramel
Cook ¾ cup of sugar until it turns to caramel.
Gradually dissolve the caramel with ½ cup of hot water.
Let it cool on the back of the stove until fully dissolved.
Finish and freeze
Combine the caramel with 1 quart of cream, ½ cup of sugar, and 1 beaten egg.
Freeze the mixture.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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
- Sugar
- Cooked to caramel, it gives the ice cream its deep, toasty flavour and sweetness.
- Cream
- Provides fat and richness, giving the frozen ice cream a smooth, creamy texture.
- Egg
- Its proteins add body and help emulsify the mixture for a smoother custard-style base.
The step that matters
Cooking the sugar to caramel. Sugar darkens quickly once it starts to colour and can burn, turning bitter. Cooking it to a clear amber stops before that point, and the caramel must then be dissolved gently in the hot water, since sudden contact can spatter or seize it into hard lumps.
“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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