Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓
Whipped Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Chill the cream thoroughly.
In a bowl, combine 1 pint of cream and 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar.
Whip and skim
Whip the mixture with a hand mixer or whisk until frothy.
Stir down the froth two or three times before skimming it off.
Use a spoon to transfer the froth to a thin wire strainer over a bowl placed in a pan of ice and salt.
Continue whipping and removing the froth until most of the cream is gone.
If using thick cream, you can thin it with a little milk.
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.
-
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cream
- Provides the fat and water that trap air to form the whipped foam structure.
- Powdered sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps stabilise the whipped foam.
The step that matters
Stir down the froth before skimming. Stirring breaks up the largest bubbles and lets the froth drain, so the foam collected on the strainer is denser and more evenly textured.
“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 whipped 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.