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 ↓
Tea Cream Ice
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Boil the sugar and green tea together for a short time.
Add the cream, milk, and cinnamon water, and mix well.
Freeze
Freeze the mixture without stirring, rolling the vessel gently to keep it in motion.
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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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Green tea + cinnamontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30 recipes
Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).
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Cream + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice cream softer.
- Green tea
- Gives the cream its main flavor and a slight tannin bitterness.
- Cream
- Its fat makes the texture rich, smooth and creamy.
- Milk
- Thins the cream's richness and adds moisture and body.
The step that matters
Freeze while rolling the vessel gently. Keeping the mixture in motion breaks up forming ice crystals, so the result freezes smooth rather than grainy. Standing still lets large crystals form.
“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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