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Dessert

Ice Cream

A chilled dessert made from eggs, milk, sugar, cream, and optionally pineapple.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Ice Cream

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 ↓

Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Beat the eggs and sugar until well combined. Add the milk.

  2. Place the mixture in a kettle of boiling water in the freezing can.

  3. Heat thoroughly without boiling.

  4. Cool in the cellar.

Finish and freeze

  1. Add the cream.

  2. Flavor to taste.

  3. Freeze.

Prepare the pineapple

  1. Grate or cut fresh pineapple into small pieces. Sweeten well. Let it sit in sugar for a few hours. Add to mixture.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Milk + pineappletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together885 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and sugar 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

Eggs
Thicken the base as they set with gentle heat, giving the ice cream body and richness.
White sugar
Sweetens the base and lowers its freezing point, keeping the ice cream softer and scoopable.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the eggs thicken and the cream enriches.
Cream
Adds fat, which makes the frozen ice cream smooth and rich in texture.

The step that matters

Heat thoroughly without boiling. Eggs thicken as they warm but will scramble if the custard boils. Gentle heat sets the base smoothly, and it must be cooled fully before the cream is added.

Swap the pineapple

The recipe marks pineapple as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, sugar, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, sugar, cream. 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.

More ice cream recipes

Strawberry 208Vanilla 203Chocolate 177Cake 127Coffee 119Pineapple 104 See all 440 →

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