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
Prepare
Pack the ice cream freezer with ice and coarse sea salt.
In a gallon container, combine the cream, milk, and sugar, stirring until the sugar dissolves.
Freeze
Pour the mixture into the freezer.
Add the crushed fruit last to avoid curdling.
Use rich milk and pure cream in equal parts for best results.
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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Cream + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Pure cream
- Adds fat for a rich, smooth, creamy texture.
- Unskimmed milk
- Adds milk fat and body, softening the frozen texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the base and keeps the mixture from freezing rock-hard.
- Crushed fruit
- Adds flavor and acidity; it is added last to avoid curdling.
The step that matters
Add the crushed fruit last. Acidic fruit added to cream and milk before freezing can cause the dairy to curdle, so it is stirred in at the end.
“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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