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Ginger Ice Cream

A custard-based ice cream flavored with preserved ginger and ginger syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Ginger Ice Cream

Why it works: Cream and syrup are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,964 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Ginger Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Scald the cream.

  2. Gradually pour the hot cream over the egg yolks, stirring constantly.

  3. Return the mixture to a double boiler and cook until thick.

Flavor and freeze

  1. Finely chop the preserved ginger and add it to the custard along with the ginger syrup.

  2. Freeze the mixture using three parts ice to one part salt.

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.

  1. Cream + syruptop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Ginger + syruptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together950 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Cream + gingertop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Egg + syruptop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,995 recipes

Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Cream
Provides fat and richness, giving the finished ice cream a smooth, creamy body.
Egg yolks
Their proteins thicken the custard as they gently set, and their fat adds a silky texture.
Preserved ginger
Adds the main ginger flavor and small chewy pieces throughout the ice cream.
Ginger syrup
Adds sweetness and a concentrated ginger aroma that carries through the frozen dessert.

The step that matters

Adding the hot cream to the yolks. Pouring the hot cream in slowly while stirring warms the yolks gradually. If they heat too fast they scramble into lumps, so the custard stays smooth and thickens evenly.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, egg, syrup):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, egg, syrup. 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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