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 ↓
Ice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Boil the milk in a saucepan.
Beat the eggs.
Mix in the sugar and arrowroot.
Make the custard
Pour the egg mixture into the boiling milk.
Stir until smooth, but do not let it boil again.
Set aside to cool.
Dissolve the arrowroot in a small amount of cold milk.
Add the dissolved arrowroot to the boiling milk. Mix well.
Just before removing from heat, add the sugar. Stir.
Finish and freeze
Whip the cream.
Flavor it as desired.
Combine the cooled milk mixture with the whipped cream.
Let the mixture chill in the freezer before churning.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + arrowroottop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together817 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
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Egg + milktop 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).
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
- Egg proteins set when heated, thickening the custard and adding richness.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the custard and ice cream are built on.
- Cream
- Adds fat, which makes the frozen ice cream rich and smooth.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and keeps the frozen texture softer.
- Arrowroot
- Starch that thickens the milk mixture as it heats.
The step that matters
Stir until smooth, but do not let it boil again. Egg proteins set with heat, and once the custard boils they can curdle and turn grainy. Heating gently and stirring keeps the custard smooth and evenly thickened.
Swap the arrowroot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, sugar, cream):
- Potatofits better
- Sweet potatofits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Arrowrootthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, sugar, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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