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 ↓
Delicious Ginger Ice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard base
Scald the milk in a saucepan.
Whisk in the flour or cornstarch and ½ cup sugar, stirring constantly until thickened.
Let the mixture cool for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Beat the eggs with a few grains of salt and ½ cup sugar until well mixed.
Add a little of the hot mixture to the egg mixture, then stir in the rest.
Cook until the eggs are set, then strain the mixture.
Freeze and ripen
Once cold, fold in the whipped cream.
Begin to freeze the mixture.
When nearly frozen, add the finely chopped ginger and sherry wine.
Finish freezing and let stand for at least 1 hour to ripen.
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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Milk + sherrytop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,479 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + gingertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,564 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the custard thickens into a smooth, creamy mixture.
- Flour or cornstarch
- Thickens the hot milk so the base becomes smooth and body-rich.
- Eggs
- Enrich the custard and help set it, adding richness and a silky texture.
- Whipped cream
- Adds fat and air, giving the frozen ice cream a lighter, softer texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the base and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice cream softer.
- Preserved ginger
- Provides the main flavor and aroma, with pieces of texture throughout.
The step that matters
Cook the eggs without scrambling them. Eggs thicken when heated gently, but too much heat makes them curdle. Tempering the eggs with hot mixture first and cooking slowly keeps the custard smooth before straining.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, flour, sugar, egg, cream, sherry, wine):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Tarragonfits about as well
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, sugar, egg, cream, sherry, wine. 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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