Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Ice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Beat the eggs and sugar together in a bowl.
Heat the milk in a saucepan until it comes to a boil.
Stir the hot milk into the egg and sugar mixture.
Finish the base
If making 1 gallon, heat enough milk to scald the eggs, then add the remaining milk.
If adding fruit, wait until the mixture starts to freeze.
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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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 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
- Eggs
- Egg proteins thicken the base and give the finished ice cream a rich, creamy structure.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that freezes into the body of the ice cream.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice cream softer and smoother.
The step that matters
Stirring the hot milk into the eggs. Egg proteins set when heated, so hot milk added too quickly can scramble the eggs. Pouring it in slowly while stirring warms the eggs gradually and keeps the custard smooth.
“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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