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Prune Ice Cream

A custard ice cream flavored with prunes and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Prune Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Make a custard by heating the milk and whisking in the eggs until thickened.

  2. Stir in the brown sugar until dissolved.

Add the cream and prunes

  1. Whip the cream and fold it into the cooled custard.

  2. Stew the prunes, then drain, stone, and chop them.

  3. Stir the chopped prunes and sherry into the custard mixture.

Freeze

  1. Freeze the mixture until solid.

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 + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Milk + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  3. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 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

Eggs
Thicken the custard as they set with heat, giving the base body and richness.
Cream
Whipped into the custard to add air and a smooth, creamy texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that the eggs thicken.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a caramel note, and dissolves into the custard.
Prunes
Contribute concentrated fruit flavour, sweetness and a soft, chopped texture.

The step that matters

Thickening the custard. Eggs thicken when heated gently, but if they get too hot they scramble and turn grainy. Heat slowly and stir while whisking the eggs in, so the custard thickens smoothly.

“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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