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 ↓
Ice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the base
Combine cream, fruit or extracts, and sugar in a bowl, then mix well.
Set up the freezer
Pound ice and mix it with coarse sea salt in a 3:1 ratio.
Place the freezing can in the center of a tub and secure the lid.
Surround the can with the ice and salt mixture up to 3 inches from the top.
Churn
Stir the cream rapidly and constantly to ensure a smooth texture.
Continue stirring until the cream can hold a peak on a spoon.
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
- Pure cream
- Provides fat that makes the ice cream rich and creamy as it freezes.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the base and lowers its freezing point, keeping the texture soft.
- Ripe natural fruits or extracts
- Supply the main flavour of the ice cream.
- Coarse sea salt
- Mixed with ice to lower its temperature well below freezing so the cream can chill.
The step that matters
Stirring the cream while it freezes. If the cream is not stirred rapidly and constantly, ice crystals form and grow, producing a grainy rather than smooth texture. Continuous stirring keeps crystals small while the mixture cools.
“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 ice 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.