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
Heat the cream or milk and sugar in a saucepan until boiling.
Dissolve the arrowroot in ½ cup of milk and stir it into the boiling mixture until it thickens.
Finish and freeze
Remove from heat and briskly beat in the egg whites.
Add flavoring to taste and freeze the mixture.
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 pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Sugar + arrowroottop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,073 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
-
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Cream + arrowroottop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together490 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
-
Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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 or rich milk
- Provides fat and richness, giving the ice cream a smooth, creamy body.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice cream softer when frozen.
- Arrowroot
- Thickens the hot mixture into a smooth body that holds up during freezing.
- Egg whites
- Add protein and air when beaten in, giving the ice cream a lighter texture.
The step that matters
Beating in the egg whites off the heat. Egg whites can scramble if added to a very hot mixture, so removing it from heat first and beating briskly keeps the texture smooth and evenly incorporated.
Swap the arrowroot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar, egg):
- Leekfits about as well
- Sweet potatofits about as well
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Arrowrootthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, egg. 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.
More ice cream recipes
You might also like
Arrowroot Pudding46 recipes
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 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.