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 Cream Ice
Ingredients
Directions
Make the coffee base
Pour boiling water over the coffee and infuse for about 30 minutes.
Strain the coffee, add the sugar, and let it cool.
Assemble and freeze
Make the custard according to the recipe.
Stir in the cooled coffee, then add the Kirsch and whipped cream.
Freeze the mixture in the usual way.
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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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).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Coffee
- Gives the ice its main flavour and aroma.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and softens the texture of the frozen ice.
- Custard
- Provides a rich, smooth base that helps the ice set creamy.
- Cream
- Adds fat and body, making the frozen texture lighter and smoother.
- Kirsch
- Adds aroma and keeps the ice softer by lowering its freezing point.
“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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