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 ↓
Chocolate Ice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Heat the milk in a double boiler.
Pour the hot milk over the beaten eggs and sugar.
Rub the chocolate smooth with a little milk, then add it to the mixture.
Return the mixture to the double boiler and cook until thick.
Finish and freeze
Once cold, 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.
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,466 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,128 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Cream + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Thicken the custard as their proteins set during gentle cooking, giving body to the ice cream.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice cream softer and smoother.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that carries the chocolate and dissolves the sugar.
- Cream
- Adds fat, which makes the frozen ice cream rich and creamy rather than icy.
- Chocolate
- Provides the main flavor and, with its fat, adds richness to the custard.
The step that matters
Cook the custard until thick. Egg proteins set as the mixture heats, so the double boiler must stay gentle and the mixture must be stirred. Overheating scrambles the eggs into lumps, while stopping too early leaves the base thin and icy.
“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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