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Dessert

Ice Cream Candy

A candy made by boiling sugar, cream, butter, and vanilla until thick, then cooling and cutting into squares.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Ice Cream Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the candy

  1. In a saucepan, combine sugar, cream, cream of tartar, and butter.

  2. Boil for 15 minutes without stirring.

Finish and cut

  1. Remove from heat and stir in nectar or vanilla.

  2. Pour into a pan to cool.

  3. Once cooled, cut into squares.

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.

  1. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Forms the sweet candy base that sets firm as the mixture cools.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the candy a softer, creamier texture.
Cream of tartar
Its mild acidity helps keep the sugar from forming large crystals.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, richer mouthfeel and flavor.
Nectar or vanilla
Adds aroma and flavor once the candy is removed from the heat.

The step that matters

Boil for 15 minutes without stirring. Boiling concentrates the sugar and controls how much water remains, which sets the final firmness. Stirring while the syrup boils can encourage sugar crystals to form, leaving the candy grainy instead of 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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