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 Ice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Scald the milk with the coffee and strain through a fine cloth.
Cook the milk, egg yolks, sugar, and salt until it thickens like a soft custard.
Strain the mixture and cool.
Freeze
Add the cream to the cooled mixture and freeze.
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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Sugar + creamtop 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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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).
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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
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard base and add richness and a smooth, creamy texture.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that carries the coffee flavor and sets into a custard.
- Cream
- Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture that stays soft when frozen.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the base and lowers the freezing point for a softer scoop.
- Ground coffee
- Provides the main coffee flavor, infused into the hot milk.
The step that matters
Cook the custard until it thickens. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but overheating can scramble them into lumps. Cook gently and stop once the mixture coats a spoon, then strain to remove any bits.
“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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