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 ↓
Ice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Heat the milk in a dish set in hot water.
Stir in the corn starch mixed smooth in a little of the milk.
Let it boil for 1–2 minutes, then remove from heat and cool.
Stir in the eggs and sugar.
If desired, add the rich cream.
Strain the mixture and add the flavoring when cool.
Freeze
Prepare the ice cream freezer as usual.
Turn the crank 100 times, then pour 1 quart of boiling water over the ice and salt.
Fill up again with ice and salt.
Turn the crank 50 times one way and 25 times the other to scrape the cream from the sides.
The cream is sufficiently frozen when it turns very hard.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 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
- Corn starch
- Thickens the custard as it boils, giving the ice cream a smooth, body-rich texture.
- Eggs
- Add richness and help the custard set and emulsify for a creamy texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the base and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice cream softer and scoopable.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the other ingredients thicken and freeze.
- Rich cream
- Adds fat, which makes the frozen ice cream smoother and creamier.
The step that matters
Scraping the cream from the sides while freezing. Ice crystals form on the cold canister walls; scraping them back into the mix keeps the texture smooth instead of grainy and icy.
“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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