Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Ice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Beat the eggs and sugar together until well combined.
Put the milk into a tin can or pail and set it into boiling water.
When it boils, stir in the egg mixture and let it just come to a boil.
Strain the mixture and flavor it as desired.
Cool the mixture in cold water, then freeze it.
Freeze
For freezing, use a tin pail with a tight-fitting cover placed in a tub of ice and salt.
Whirl often and scrape the sides as it freezes to achieve a fine texture.
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.
-
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Eggs
- Egg proteins thicken the custard as they heat, giving the ice cream body and richness.
- Milk or cream
- Provides the liquid base and fat that give the frozen ice cream its creamy texture.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the base and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice cream softer and scoopable.
The step that matters
Letting the custard just come to a boil. If the egg mixture overheats, the proteins scramble and the custard turns grainy. Stopping at the boil keeps it smooth.
“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.
More ice cream recipes
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.