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
Heat the milk with the ground coffee.
Strain the mixture through a fine cloth.
Make the custard
In a saucepan, cook the strained milk, egg yolks, sugar, and salt until it thickens like a soft custard.
Strain the custard and cool it.
Finish and freeze
Stir in the cream.
Freeze the mixture.
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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Coffee + milktop 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
- Their proteins thicken the custard and add richness as they set when gently heated.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the base and softens the texture by keeping ice crystals small.
- Cream
- Adds fat, which makes the frozen ice cream smoother and richer.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base that the custard and coffee flavor are built on.
- Ground coffee
- Gives the base its coffee flavor as it steeps in the hot milk.
The step that matters
Cooking the custard. Egg yolk proteins set when heated, so if the custard gets too hot it can scramble and turn grainy. Cook it gently and stop once it thickens enough to coat a spoon.
“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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