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Dessert

Almond Ice

A frozen dessert made from almond milk, cream, and milk, flavored with orange‑flower water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Almond Ice

Why it works: Orange and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,125 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Almond Ice

Ingredients

Directions

Make the almond milk

  1. Pound the sweet and bitter almonds in a marble mortar, adding a few drops of water as needed.

  2. Once thoroughly pounded, mix in the orange-flower water and half of the milk.

  3. Strain the mixture through a cloth, squeezing tightly to extract the almond milk.

Make the ice cream base

  1. In a saucepan, boil the remaining milk with the cream, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon.

  2. When the mixture thickens, pour in the almond milk and bring to a boil.

  3. Remove from heat and let it cool in a bowl or pitcher before pouring into a mold for freezing.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Orange + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Milk + orangetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,696 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Cream + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sweet almonds
Provide the main almond flavor and body of the almond milk.
Bitter almonds
Add a deeper, more pronounced almond aroma to the base.
Cream
Adds fat for a rich, smooth texture in the frozen dessert.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that carries the almond flavor and sets with the cream.

The step that matters

Stirring the milk and cream while it boils. Constant stirring keeps the dairy from scorching on the bottom of the saucepan and helps it thicken evenly, which gives the base a smooth texture before freezing.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cream, almond):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream, almond. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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