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 ↓
Ices and Ice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mixture
If using eggs, beat them and mix with sugar and cream or milk.
If not using eggs, mix sugar with cream or milk.
Set up the freezer
Prepare a freezer and ensure it is set up correctly.
Pound ice in a coffee sack until lumps are the size of an egg.
Layer ice around the freezer, then add a thin layer of salt.
Freeze
Turn the crank to mix the ingredients until well combined.
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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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Egg and cream 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
- Sugar
- Sweetens the mixture and helps keep the ice cream soft rather than rock hard.
- Eggs
- Add richness and help give the custard-style base a smooth, creamy structure.
- Cream or milk
- Provides fat and liquid that give the ice cream its body and creamy texture.
- Rock salt
- Lowers the temperature of the surrounding ice so the mixture freezes.
The step that matters
Layer ice and salt around the freezer. Salt lowers the melting point of the ice, letting the brine get colder than ice alone. Too little salt means the cream freezes slowly and may stay grainy or soupy.
“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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