Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
Junket Ice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Heat the milk, cream, and sugar to 98°F (37°C).
Crush and dissolve the junket tablet in 1 tablespoon cold water, then stir it into the milk mixture.
Add the vanilla and mix well.
Set and freeze
Let the mixture stand undisturbed in a warm room until it jellies.
Chill and freeze before serving plain or with chocolate sauce.
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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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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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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Sugar + junkettop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together82 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Cream + junkettop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together64 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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
- Milk
- Forms the main body of the set custard as its proteins coagulate.
- Cream
- Adds fat for a richer, smoother texture in the finished set dessert.
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness and softens the texture of the frozen dessert.
- Junket tablet
- Contains rennet, which curdles the milk proteins into a soft, set gel.
The step that matters
Let the mixture stand undisturbed until it jellies. Rennet sets milk into a gel only while the mixture is warm and still. Stirring or moving it during setting breaks the forming gel, leaving a grainy or loose texture.
“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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