Why it works: Vanilla and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
Ice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Put 1 pound of sugar, a split vanilla bean, and 2 quarts of milk over boiling water.
Beat 6 eggs with ½ pound of sugar and add to the hot milk.
Cook until slightly thickened.
Remove from heat and let cool.
Finish and freeze
Once cool, add 1 quart of rich cream and whip briskly for a few moments.
Freeze the mixture.
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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Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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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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Vanilla + creamtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,301 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 cook and give the ice cream a rich, creamy body.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the eggs thicken and the freezing turns into ice cream.
- Rich cream
- Adds fat, which keeps the frozen ice cream smooth and tender rather than icy.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the base and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice cream softer when frozen.
- Vanilla bean
- Contributes aroma and flavor to the milk as it steeps.
The step that matters
Cook the custard until slightly thickened. Heating egg proteins thickens the base, but overheating scrambles the eggs and makes the custard grainy. Stop as soon as it coats a spoon lightly.
“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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