Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Gooseberry Ice
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Stew the gooseberries until soft.
Squeeze the mixture through an ice-cream strainer.
Add 1½ cups sugar and 1 cup water to the juice and mix well.
Freeze
Freeze the mixture until half frozen.
Add the whipped egg whites and mix gently.
Continue freezing until fully set.
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 + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Gooseberries
- Provide the fruit flavour and tartness, and the juice that forms the base.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the base and lowers its freezing point, keeping the ice cream softer.
- Egg whites
- Whipped, they add air and a light, fluffy texture to the frozen mixture.
The step that matters
Adding the whipped egg whites. Fold them in gently once the mixture is half frozen. Vigorous stirring knocks out the air that gives the ice cream its lightness.
“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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