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 ↓
Chocolate Cream Ice
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Boil the milk in a saucepan.
Stir the grated chocolate into the boiling milk until thickened.
Add the sugar and mix well.
Cool and freeze
Let the mixture cool, then stir in the cream.
Pour the mixture into an ice cream freezer.
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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Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,466 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,128 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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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
- Forms the liquid base that the chocolate thickens and the frozen dessert is built on.
- Chocolate
- Supplies the main flavour and, as it melts into the hot milk, thickens the base.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and softens the texture of the frozen ice cream.
- Cream
- Adds fat, making the ice cream rich, smooth and less icy.
The step that matters
Cool the mixture before adding the cream and freezing. A warm base freezes slowly and churns poorly, so larger ice crystals form and the texture turns coarse. Cooling it fully before it goes into the freezer keeps the ice cream smooth.
“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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