Why it works: Cream and walnut are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,982 recipes. Both carry octanal, which smells fat, soap. The science ↓
Ices
Ingredients
Directions
Pack the freezer
Pack one part coarse table salt to two parts ice around the cream pail.
Pour 1½ pints of water over the ice for 3 pints of cream.
For each additional quart of cream, add 1 pint of water to the ice.
If no ice cream freezer is available, place cream in a tin pail with a close cover.
Pack ice and salt in a larger pail around the cream pail.
Chill and set
Chill for 20-30 minutes, then stir the mixture until stiff.
Repack and cover with a woolen cloth or carpet, leaving it in a cool place for 1-2 hours.
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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Cream + walnuttop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,982 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cream
- Provides fat and richness, and the fat helps make the frozen result smooth and creamy.
- Ice
- Draws heat out of the cream as it melts, chilling the mixture for freezing.
The step that matters
Pack salt and ice around the cream pail. Salt lowers the melting point of the ice, so the brine becomes colder than ice alone and can freeze the cream. With too little salt or ice, the cream may stay unfrozen.
“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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