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Dessert

Ice Cream and Ices

A frozen dessert made with berries, orange juice, almonds, gelatine, milk, cream, and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and almond 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 ↓

Ice Cream and Ices

Ingredients

Directions

Make the berry ice

  1. Soak the gelatine in cold water to cover.

  2. Add 1 pint of water to the berries and strain.

  3. Dissolve the soaked gelatine in ½ cup of boiling water.

  4. Add the dissolved gelatine to the strained berry mixture.

  5. Freeze the mixture.

  6. In a bowl, combine 1 tablespoon of gelatine with ⅓ cup of water. Let the mixture stand for 20 minutes.

  7. Add ½ cup of boiling water to the gelatine mixture and stir until dissolved.

  8. Mix in 4 ounces of powdered sugar, the strained juice of 6 oranges, and enough cold water to make 1 quart. Stir until the sugar is dissolved.

  9. Pour the mixture into a freezing can.

  10. Freeze the can.

Make the almond cream

  1. Pound the sweet and bitter almonds in a mortar, adding a few drops of water as needed.

  2. Add the orange‑flower water and half of the milk to the pounded almonds.

  3. Strain the almond mixture through a cloth.

  4. Boil the remaining milk with the cream, stirring until thickened.

  5. Pour the almond milk into the boiled milk‑cream mixture.

  6. Bring the mixture to a boil, then cool in a bowl.

  7. Pour the cooled mixture into a mold to freeze.

Make the currant or raspberry ice

  1. For a refreshing ice, squeeze enough currants or raspberries to make 1 pint of juice.

  2. Combine the juice with 1 pint of water and 1 pint of sugar, boiling hot.

  3. Pour the hot mixture over 3 beaten egg whites.

  4. Whip the egg whites thoroughly.

  5. Freeze the mixture as usual.

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. Orange + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Orange + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,696 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

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

  5. Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the berry ice so it holds its shape when frozen.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that adds lightness to the refreshing ice.
Sweet almonds
Provide the main flavour and richness of the almond cream.
Cream
Adds fat, which makes the almond ice smoother and creamier.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and softens the frozen texture of the berry ice.
Orange juice
Adds acidity and bright citrus flavour to the berry ice.

The step that matters

Pour the hot mixture over the egg whites. Boiling syrup partly cooks and stabilises the whites, helping the foam hold. Whipping them thoroughly afterward ensures they are evenly blended, giving the ice an airy texture.

Swap the orange

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

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

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