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 ↓
Tea Ice
Ingredients
Directions
Infuse the tea
Tie the tea in a bit of muslin.
Boil the muslin in the cream until the infusion is strong.
Remove the muslin and squeeze it well.
Finish the base
Mix the cream with the eggs and sugar.
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.
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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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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Tea + creamtop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together463 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
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Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Tea + sugartop 31% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,204 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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
- Tea
- Supplies the main flavour as its compounds dissolve into the hot cream.
- Cream
- Provides fat for richness and a smooth, creamy texture.
- Eggs
- Add richness and help set the custard base when gently heated.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the base and softens the frozen texture.
The step that matters
Boil the muslin in the cream until the infusion is strong. Heat and time pull flavour from tea leaves, but over-steeping also draws out bitter tannins. Judge strength by taste, then squeeze the muslin to recover the flavourful liquid.
“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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