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Dessert

Almond Ice Cream

A frozen dessert made from cream, sugar, almonds, corn starch, and orange flower water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,125 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Almond Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the almond base

  1. Heat 1 pint of cream almost to boiling.

  2. Add sugar and stir until melted.

  3. Add almonds and simmer for 10 minutes.

  4. Remove from heat and let stand covered for 10 minutes.

  5. Strain the mixture and return to heat.

  6. Stir in corn-starch for 5 minutes.

Finish and freeze

  1. Let cool, then beat with an egg-whip, gradually adding the rest of the cream.

  2. Freeze the mixture.

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.

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. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Corn + almondtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together485 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Corn + orangetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together586 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Cream + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Cream
Provides rich fat that gives the ice cream a smooth, creamy texture.
Sweet almonds
Supply the main almond flavour and body to the base.
Bitter almonds
Add a deeper, more intense almond aroma to the base.
Corn-starch
Thickens the heated base so it holds together and resists ice crystals.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and lowers its freezing point for a softer texture.

The step that matters

Stir in corn-starch for 5 minutes. Cornstarch must be heated in the liquid to swell and thicken it. Under-cooking leaves a raw starchy taste and a thin base, while the mixture must not be left to scorch on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar, corn, almond):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, corn, almond. 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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