Why it works: Milk and coffee are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,202 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓
Maple Ice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Heat the milk until scalding hot, then cool it.
Beat the egg yolks very light with the maple syrup.
Add the cooled milk to the egg yolk mixture.
Place the mixture in a double boiler and scald thoroughly.
Finish and freeze
Add the cream and 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.
-
Milk + coffeetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,202 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
-
Coffee + creamtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,339 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
-
Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Milk + maple syruptop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together798 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
-
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the base and add richness as they set gently with heat.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the custard is built on.
- Cream
- Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture in the frozen ice cream.
- Maple syrup
- Provides sweetness and maple flavor throughout the base.
The step that matters
Scald the custard in the double boiler. Egg yolks thicken as they warm, but too much heat can curdle them into lumps. Gentle, indirect heat in a double boiler lets the custard thicken 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.
More maple ice cream recipes
You might also like
Coffee Ice Cream91 recipes
Maple Fudge35 recipes
Maple Cream34 recipes
Coffee Custard27 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.