Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Strawberry Ice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Pour scalding milk over the beaten egg and cornstarch mixed with a little cold milk.
Stir over boiling water until it begins to thicken.
Finish the ice cream
Let it cool, then mix with mashed strawberries and sugar rubbed through a colander.
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.
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Egg
- Thickens the custard as it cooks and adds richness to the base.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the custard base so it sets smooth rather than watery when heated.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard that the egg and cornstarch thicken.
- Strawberries
- Provide the fruit flavour, colour and body of the finished ice cream.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and softens the texture of the frozen ice cream.
The step that matters
Stir the custard over boiling water until it begins to thicken. Egg and cornstarch thicken as they heat, but overheating can curdle the egg and leave lumps. Stirring steadily over gentle boiling water and stopping as soon as it thickens keeps the custard smooth.
“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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