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 ↓
Coffee Ice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the coffee milk
Pour the milk into a double boiler and add the coffee.
Heat until it reaches boiling point, then remove from heat and strain through a cloth.
Finish and freeze
Let the mixture cool, then add the whipped cream, sugar, and beaten egg whites.
Pour the mixture into an ice cream freezer and pack it.
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.
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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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Milk + coffeetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,202 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Cream + coffeetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,339 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
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Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,344 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Milk + creamtop 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
- Heavy cream
- Adds fat and richness, giving the frozen ice cream a smooth, creamy texture.
- Egg whites
- Beaten whites add air and lightness to the mixture, softening the final texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the base and keeps the ice cream softer by lowering its freezing point.
- Whole milk
- Provides the liquid base and milk solids that give body and a mellow dairy flavor.
The step that matters
Cooling before adding the cream and egg whites. If the coffee milk is still hot, it can deflate the whipped cream and egg whites and melt the cream's structure, leaving a denser, less airy ice cream. Letting it cool first keeps the air you whipped into the mixture.
“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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