Why it works: Egg and milk 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 base
Separate the eggs and beat the yolks until light.
Stir in sugar to taste.
Add the milk and mix well.
Finish and freeze
Fold in the beaten egg whites.
Add flavoring to taste.
Freeze 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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Egg + milktop 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).
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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
- Yolks and whites add richness and body, and whipped whites lighten the mixture.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base and moisture that freezes into the ice cream's texture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and softens the frozen texture by lowering the freezing point.
The step that matters
Fold in the beaten egg whites. Whites must be beaten to soft peaks and folded gently so the air stays in the mixture. Deflating them makes the ice cream dense and heavy after freezing.
“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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