Name: Ice Cream
Ingredients: 2 cans condensed milk; 1 pint cream; ½ cup sugar; 5 eggs; 1 can skimmed milk or cold water

Why it works: Cream and sugar 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

Make the base

In a large bowl, combine the condensed milk, cream, sugar, and eggs, and mix well until the sugar is dissolved.
Add the skimmed milk or cold water and stir to combine.

Freeze

Pour the mixture into a tin and freeze 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.

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.

Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Condensed milk + sugartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together804 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Condensed milk + creamtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together416 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together29,399 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Condensed milk: Adds sweetness and a thick, creamy body that keeps the ice cream smooth.
Cream: Supplies fat, which makes the frozen result rich and soft to bite.
Eggs: Their proteins and yolk fat add richness and help emulsify the mixture.
Sugar: Sweetens the base and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice cream scoopable.

“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.