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Caramel Ice Cream

A custard-based ice cream flavored with caramel and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Caramel Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Beat the eggs, cornstarch, and 1 cup of granulated sugar together.

  2. Stir in the boiling milk and cook for 15 minutes.

Make the caramel and combine

  1. In a hot pan, melt the remaining 1 cup of granulated sugar until brown.

  2. Slowly add the caramel to the boiling custard while beating constantly.

Finish and freeze

  1. Once cool, fold in the whipped cream and powdered sugar.

  2. Flavor to taste, then freeze.

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.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 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 custard as they set with heat and add richness.
Cornstarch
Thickens the custard as it heats and gives a smooth, sliceable body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that the eggs and cornstarch set into.
Cream
Adds fat for a rich, smooth texture that resists iciness.
Granulated sugar
Browns into caramel for deep, toasty flavor, and sweetens the base.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves easily into cold cream, sweetening without a gritty texture.

The step that matters

Slowly add the caramel to the boiling custard while beating constantly.. Hot caramel can harden into lumps or seize when it meets a cold or uneven mixture. Adding it slowly while beating spreads the heat and sugar evenly, keeping the custard smooth.

“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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