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Dessert

Macaroon Ice Cream

A chilled dessert made from macaroons soaked in sherry, blended with whipped cream, milk, sugar, and salt.

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

Macaroon Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Roll the macaroons.

  2. Soak the macaroons in sherry for several hours.

  3. Beat the heavy cream until stiff.

  4. Dissolve the sugar in the milk.

  5. Add the dissolved sugar mixture to the whipped cream.

  6. Combine the mixtures.

  7. Add a few grains of salt.

Freeze and serve

  1. Freeze the mixture.

  2. Mold the mixture.

  3. Pack the mixture in salt and ice.

  4. Let it stand for one hour.

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.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Milk + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  3. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + winetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (fenugreek, curry).

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

Heavy cream
Whipped into stiff foam that gives the ice cream its light, rich body.
Macaroons
Soaked in sherry to soften, adding texture and a nutty, almond flavor.
Milk
Dissolves the sugar and provides the liquid base that freezes into the ice cream.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice cream softer.
Sherry wine
Softens the macaroons and adds a warm, fruity aroma.

The step that matters

Beat the heavy cream until stiff. Cream must be whipped to stiff peaks so it holds air. Underwhipped cream makes a dense, icy result, while overwhipping can turn it grainy.

“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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