Why it works: Cream and gelatin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,628 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓
Ice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Beat together the sugar, egg, and flour until light.
Slowly add the pint of cream and scald the mixture.
Dissolve the gelatin in the mixture.
Strain the mixture and add the quart of cream.
Finish and freeze
Add your choice of flavoring and freeze.
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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Cream + gelatintop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,628 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,778 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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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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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Egg
- Thickens the custard base and adds richness as it cooks.
- Gelatin
- Helps the frozen ice cream set firm and hold a smooth texture.
- Cream
- Supplies fat, which gives the ice cream its rich, smooth body.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point for a softer texture.
- Flour
- Adds body and helps stabilize the mixture against separating.
The step that matters
Scald the mixture after adding the cream. Heating the egg and cream mixture thickens it gently. Overheating can curdle the egg, so watch for steam and small bubbles rather than a boil.
“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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