Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓
Coffee Cream Ice
Ingredients
Directions
Make the coffee base
Pour boiling water over the coffee and infuse for about 30 minutes.
Strain the coffee, add the sugar, and let it cool.
Finish and freeze
Make the custard according to the recipe and stir in the cooled coffee.
Add the Kirsch and whipped cream, then freeze in the usual way.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Coffee + creamtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,339 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
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Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,344 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Coffee
- Gives the ice its main flavour and aroma once infused into the base.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the base and softens the texture of the frozen ice.
- Custard
- Provides a rich, creamy base that carries the coffee flavour.
- Cream
- Adds fat and richness, giving a smoother, lighter frozen texture.
- Kirsch
- Adds aromatic cherry flavour and lowers freezing hardness for a softer scoop.
The step that matters
Add the cooled coffee to the custard. If the coffee is still warm, it can curdle or thin the custard and disturb its set. Letting it cool first keeps the custard smooth before freezing.
“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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