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 ↓
Strawberry Ice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Bring the milk and cream to near boiling point.
Add the beaten egg yolks and stir over low heat until thickened.
Stir in the sugar until dissolved, then strain and let cool.
Finish and freeze
Pass the strawberries through a fine sieve and mix with the custard.
Add lemon juice and carmine gradually until a deep pink color is achieved.
Freeze the mixture for about 1 hour.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cream + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard and add richness and a smooth, creamy texture.
- Cream
- Adds fat for a rich, smooth mouthfeel and softer frozen texture.
- Milk
- Provides liquid base that, with the yolks, forms the custard.
- Strawberries
- Supply the main fruit flavor and natural pink tone to the base.
- Caster sugar
- Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice cream softer.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the strawberry flavor.
The step that matters
Stir the custard over low heat until thickened. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat; too much heat curdles them into lumps, leaving a grainy base instead of a smooth custard.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, milk, egg, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Raspberryfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, milk, egg, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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