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 ↓
Caramel Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the caramel
Boil maple sugar with a little water until it snaps when dropped into cold water.
Make the custard base
While boiling, scald the milk on the stove.
Separate the eggs and beat them thoroughly with the granulated sugar.
When the milk reaches boiling point, add the maple candy and stir until smooth and creamy.
Finish and freeze
Once cooled, add the thick cream and freeze.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Maple sugar
- Provides the main sweet, caramel-like flavour once boiled to a candy stage.
- Eggs
- Thicken the custard as they set with heat, giving a rich, smooth body.
- Sweet milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard and carries the sugars and eggs.
- Thick sweet cream
- Adds fat for a richer, smoother texture in the frozen result.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the eggs and helps keep the custard smooth when beaten.
The step that matters
Boiling the maple sugar to the snap stage. Sugar must reach the right concentration to set firm when cooled. Underheating leaves it soft and sticky, while overheating can make it bitter or burnt, so the snap test in cold water helps judge doneness.
“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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