Why it works: Milk and cocoa work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 643 recipes. Both carry methyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓
Cocoa-nut Ice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Boil custard by whisking together eggs and milk in a saucepan over medium heat until thickened.
Just before freezing, grate the cocoa-nut into the custard.
Do not use the milk of the cocoa-nut or cream, as it will make the ice cream too rich.
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.
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Milk + cocoatop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together643 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + cocoatop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together582 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Thicken the custard as their proteins set when gently heated.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard and gives the ice cream its body.
- Cocoa-nut
- Adds coconut flavor and texture to the finished ice cream.
The step that matters
Boil custard by whisking together eggs and milk in a saucepan over medium heat until thickened.. Egg proteins thicken the custard as they set when heated, but if the mixture gets too hot the eggs can scramble. Keep the heat medium and keep whisking so the custard thickens smoothly.
Swap the cocoa
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk):
- Pecansfits about as well
- Cocoathe original
- Peasfits about as well
- Walnutfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk. 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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