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Dessert

Buttermilk Ice Cream

A frozen dessert made from buttermilk, cream, sugar, and vanilla or coffee flavor.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Buttermilk Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a mixing bowl, combine the buttermilk and thick cream.

  2. Add the sugar and mix until fully dissolved.

  3. Flavor the mixture with vanilla or black coffee to taste.

Chill and churn

  1. Chill the mixture in the refrigerator before churning in an ice cream maker.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Buttermilk + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Buttermilk + creamtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together674 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Buttermilk
Provides a tangy, slightly acidic flavor and moisture for the base.
Thick cream
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, creamy texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice cream scoopable.

The step that matters

Chill the mixture before churning. A thoroughly cold base freezes quickly in the machine, which forms smaller ice crystals and a smoother texture. A warm base churns slowly and can turn out icy or grainy.

“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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