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 ↓
Ice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Add the beaten egg yolks to the cold milk and strain through a cloth.
Scald the milk and let it cool.
Stir in the cream, flour, and sugar, then add flavoring to taste.
Freeze
Pour the mixture into a freezer, stir a few times, and fold in the beaten egg whites with a pinch of salt.
If a sweeter cream is desired, add more sugar.
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 + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cream + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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
- Eggs
- Yolks enrich and emulsify the base, while beaten whites trap air for a lighter texture.
- Cream
- Adds fat, which makes the frozen result rich and smooth.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and keeps the frozen texture softer by lowering the freezing point.
- Flour
- Thickens the base so it holds body and resists separating.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that the other ingredients are blended into.
The step that matters
Fold in the beaten egg whites. Beaten whites hold air that makes the ice cream light. Stirring too vigorously deflates them, leaving a denser, heavier texture.
“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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