Name: Apple Ice Cream
Ingredients: ½ gallon coddled apples; 1 pound white sugar; ½ gallon sweet cream

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 ↓

Apple Ice Cream

Ingredients

½ gallon coddled apples
1 pound white sugar
½ gallon sweet cream

Directions

Combine coddled apples, sugar, and sweet cream in a large bowl.
Stir well until the sugar is dissolved.
Freeze the mixture until it is hard.

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.

Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together16,478 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Apple + creamtop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,089 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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

Coddled apples: Provide the apple flavor and fruity body of the ice cream.
White sugar: Sweetens the mixture and lowers its freezing point so it stays softer.
Sweet cream: Adds fat and richness, giving the ice cream a smooth, creamy texture.