Name: Chocolate Ice Cream
Ingredients: 4 to 6 ounces of chocolate; 1 pint of cream; a little new milk; ½ pound of sugar; 1 ounce of cochineal (for color); 1 ounce of salts of wormwood (for color); 1 pint of water (for color); 3 ounces of cream of tartar (for color); 1 ounce of roche alum (for color)

Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 Ice Cream

Ingredients

4 to 6 ounces of chocolate
1 pint of cream
a little new milk
½ pound of sugar
1 ounce of cochineal (for color)
1 ounce of salts of wormwood (for color)
1 pint of water (for color)
3 ounces of cream of tartar (for color)
1 ounce of roche alum (for color)

Directions

Make the base

Infuse the chocolate and mix it well with the cream, new milk, and sugar.
Strain the mixture and freeze it.

Make the color

For color, boil the cochineal, salts of wormwood, and water for five minutes over low heat.
Remove from heat and slowly add the cream of tartar and roche alum to avoid overflow.
If storing, use clarified sugar instead of water.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,466 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,404 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Chocolate + milktop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,128 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked 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

Chocolate: Provides the main flavor and the dark color of the ice cream base.
Cream: Adds fat and richness, giving a smoother, creamier texture when frozen.
Sugar: Sweetens the base and lowers its freezing point, keeping the ice cream softer.
Cochineal: Supplies the red coloring used in the color mixture.
Cream of tartar: Adds acidity that helps stabilize the color mixture.

The step that matters

Adding the cream of tartar and roche alum. Adding them too quickly can cause the hot mixture to foam up and overflow. Adding them slowly lets the foam settle and keeps the color mixture under control.

“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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Chocolate Ice Cream