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
Make the base
Wash the Irish moss and add it to the milk in a saucepan.
Heat the milk on the stove, stirring until it thickens.
Strain the mixture through a sieve and set it on ice.
Flavor and freeze
Sweeten and flavor the mixture to taste.
Pour the mixture into the cream that is already in the ice cream freezer.
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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Cream + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + irish mosstop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
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Irish moss + sugartop 24% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together107 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Milk and sugar 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
- Cream
- Adds richness and fat, giving the finished ice cream a smooth, creamy texture.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the thickened mixture is built on and combined with the cream.
- Irish moss
- Contains carrageenan, which thickens the milk and helps it set smoothly when cooled.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and keeps the frozen ice cream softer rather than rock hard.
The step that matters
Heating the milk with the Irish moss. Stirring keeps the moss and milk from scorching on the bottom of the pan while the thickener dissolves. Heat releases the carrageenan that thickens the mixture, which then sets smoothly as it cools.
“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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