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Dessert

Sicilian Cream Ice

A chilled dessert made from cream, sugar, egg yolks, orange rind, citron liqueur, diavolini, pistachios, and dried cherries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Sicilian Cream Ice

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, combine cream, loaf sugar, and egg yolks with the orange rind.

  2. Heat the mixture, stirring until it thickens.

  3. Strain through a fine sieve into a basin and add citron liqueur.

Freeze and serve

  1. Place the mixture on ice and let it freeze until stiff.

  2. Mix in diavolini, pistachios, and dried cherries thoroughly.

  3. Transfer to molds and keep on ice until ready to serve.

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

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

  2. Orange + pistachiotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together328 recipes

    Shared aroma: pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Cream + pistachiotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together634 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  4. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and orange barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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

Cream
Provides fat and richness, giving the frozen dessert a smooth, creamy texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard when heated and add richness and emulsifying structure to the frozen mixture.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the base and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice softer and scoopable.
Citron liqueur
Adds aroma and flavour and some alcohol, which keeps the frozen mixture softer.

The step that matters

Heat the mixture, stirring until it thickens. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but if they get too hot they scramble and curdle. Stir constantly over gentle heat and stop once the custard coats a spoon, so the base stays smooth before straining and freezing.

Swap the orange

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

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

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