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Caramel Ice Cream

A custard-based ice cream flavored with caramelized sugar.

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

Caramel Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. In a saucepan, cook the brown sugar over medium heat without water, stirring constantly until it melts.

Make the custard

  1. In another pot, heat the sweet milk on the stove until it begins to boil.

  2. Once boiling, add the beaten eggs and the flour dissolved in a little cold milk.

  3. Cook the mixture well, then add the melted sugar.

Finish

  1. Allow the mixture to cool, then stir in the heavy cream.

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

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

  2. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Brown sugar
Melts into caramel that gives the ice cream its deep, sweet flavor.
Sweet milk
Forms the liquid base that the custard is cooked in.
Eggs
Thicken the custard as they cook and add richness.
All-purpose flour
Helps thicken the custard so it holds a smooth body.
Heavy cream
Adds fat for a rich, smooth texture once the mixture cools.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture well after adding the eggs and flour. Beaten eggs and flour must be cooked fully to thicken the custard and cook out the raw flour taste. Undercooked eggs stay thin and can curdle or feel grainy.

“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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