Why it works: Vanilla and sherry work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 506 recipes. Both carry piperonal, which smells bitter, coconut. The science ↓
Bisque Ice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Prepare the cream and sugar as for vanilla ice cream.
Half freeze the mixture.
Add flavourings and finish
Stir in the vanilla, caramel, powdered macaroons, kisses, lady fingers, and sherry, then beat until smooth.
Remove the dasher and pack 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.
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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Vanilla + sherrytop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together506 recipes
Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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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 + vanillatop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,301 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
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Cream + sherrytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,038 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
- Provides fat and richness, giving the ice cream a smooth, creamy texture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice cream softer.
- Powdered macaroons
- Adds almond-like flavour and fine solids that give body and a sandy, toasty texture.
- Sherry
- Adds aromatic depth and flavour while contributing a little alcohol that keeps the texture softer.
The step that matters
Half freeze the mixture before adding the solids. Freezing only partway leaves a slushy base that can absorb the macaroons, kisses and lady fingers evenly. Fully frozen cream would be too firm to mix in the add-ins smoothly.
“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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