Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓
Strawberry Ice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Remove the stalks and discard any bad strawberries.
In a basin, sprinkle the strawberries with powdered sugar and add the lemon juice.
Puree the mixture by passing it through a fine sieve.
Add the cream and mix thoroughly.
Freeze
To freeze, pound the ice and mix it with a little coarse sea salt.
Place the freezing pot in a bucket surrounded by the pounded ice.
Pour the mixture into the freezing pot, cover it, and turn it from right to left every 15 minutes.
When the mixture begins to freeze at the sides, stir it with a wooden spatula until smooth.
Once frozen, place the mixture in a mold and keep it on ice until ready to serve.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + creamtop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,640 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Strawberries
- Provide the main flavour and, once pureed, the body of the ice cream.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and dissolves easily into its juices before freezing.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the strawberry flavour and balances the sweetness.
- Cream
- Adds fat and richness, giving the frozen mixture a smooth, creamy texture.
The step that matters
Stirring as the mixture begins to freeze. Ice crystals form first at the sides of the pot. Stirring then breaks them up before they grow large, keeping the texture smooth rather than icy.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Raspberryfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream. 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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