Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓
Caramel Ice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the caramel
Melt 1 cup of sugar in an iron pan until it reaches the caramel stage.
Gradually add ½ cup of boiling water to the caramel, mixing well.
Finish and freeze
Combine the caramel mixture with 1 quart of hot cream and ½ cup of sugar.
Allow the mixture to cool, then freeze.
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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Sugar + creamtop 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
- Sugar
- Melted to caramel, providing the dish's deep, sweet, toasted flavour.
- Cream
- Supplies fat and richness, giving the ice cream a smooth, creamy texture.
The step that matters
Melting the sugar to caramel. Sugar darkens quickly once it passes the melting point, so it can burn and turn bitter if left unattended. Watch closely and stop at the caramel stage before adding the water.
“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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