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Buttermilk Ice Cream

A frozen dessert made from buttermilk, lemon juice, pineapple, sugar, and sweet cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Buttermilk and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,973 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Buttermilk Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Mix and fill

  1. In a large bowl, stir together the buttermilk, lemon juice, grated pineapple, and sugar until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a freezer can, leaving about 2 inches of space at the top.

  3. Add sweet cream to fill the can to the 2-inch mark.

Freeze

  1. Freeze the mixture and pack it as needed.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Buttermilk + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Buttermilk + creamtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together674 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Lemon + pineappletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Buttermilk + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together501 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Buttermilk
Adds tangy, slightly sour flavour that balances the sweetness.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and brightness that lifts the flavour.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, keeping the texture softer.
Grated pineapple
Adds fruity flavour and moisture.
Sweet cream
Adds fat and richness for a smooth, creamy texture.

The step that matters

Leave the 2-inch space at the top. Ice cream expands as it freezes. Filling the can to the brim can push mixture out or make it hard to seal, so the headspace gives room for that expansion.

Swap the pineapple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (buttermilk, lemon, sugar, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against buttermilk, lemon, sugar, cream. 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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