Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and 43,450 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Creme De Menthe
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
In a large bowl, combine the rich cream and sugar.
Add the liquor from the bottle of Creme de Menthe cherries. Mix well.
Freeze and serve
Freeze the mixture until it is almost stiff.
Just before it is fully frozen, fold in the cherries.
Serve chilled.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rich cream
- Provides fat that makes the ice cream rich and creamy, with a smooth texture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice cream softer and scoopable.
- Creme de menthe liquor
- Adds mint flavour and some alcohol, which also keeps the ice cream from freezing rock hard.
- Creme de menthe cherries
- Add mint-flavoured pieces and a contrasting chewy texture throughout the ice cream.
The step that matters
Fold in the cherries just before fully frozen. If the mixture is already fully frozen, the cherries cannot be spread evenly and stay in clumps. Folding while still almost stiff distributes them through the cream without breaking the air and texture built up during freezing.
“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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