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 ↓
Coffee Ice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the coffee
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Place the coffee berries in the oven for 5 minutes.
Make the base
In a saucepan, boil the milk and cream together.
Add the roasted coffee berries to the milk and cream, then pour into a jug and cover until cold.
Strain the mixture, then add the arrowroot and sugar.
Stir the mixture over low heat in a double boiler until it thickens like custard.
Freeze
Freeze the mixture according to your ice cream maker's instructions.
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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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + coffeetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,202 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Cream + coffeetop 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).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base and dairy richness for the ice cream.
- Cream
- Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture in the frozen ice cream.
- Arrowroot
- Thickens the base as it heats, giving a custard-like body.
- Roasted coffee berries
- Supplies the coffee flavour and aroma to the base.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the base and softens the texture of the frozen ice cream.
The step that matters
Stir the mixture over low heat in a double boiler until it thickens like custard. Gentle, indirect heat lets the arrowroot thicken the base evenly without scorching or lumping. Too much heat can break the custard and burn the milk solids on the pan bottom.
Swap the arrowroot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cream, coffee, sugar):
- Potatofits better
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Sweet potatofits about as well
- Arrowrootthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream, coffee, sugar. 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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