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Dessert

Vanilla Ice

A chilled dessert made from double cream, vanilla, egg yolks, sugar, and whipped cream, set in ice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Vanilla Ice

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Boil the double cream in a stewpan, then remove from heat.

  2. Add the vanilla stick, cover and steep for 1 hour.

  3. Combine egg yolks and pounded sugar and mix well.

  4. Add the boiled cream to the egg mixture.

  5. Strain through a silk sieve into a stewpan.

  6. Stir over low heat until the cream thickens and coats the spoon, keeping heat low to avoid boiling.

  7. Pour into a basin and stir continuously to prevent a skin from forming.

  8. Once cold, strain into a freezing pot.

Freeze

  1. Set the freezing pot in ice.

  2. Freeze, working the cream with a spatula.

  3. Mix in the whipped cream and continue working until smooth.

  4. Close the pot.

  5. Remove any water from the ice pail.

  6. Refill the ice pail with pounded ice and coarse sea salt.

  7. Cover the freezing pot completely.

Mould and serve

  1. Pour vanilla ice into molds.

  2. Embed molds in pounded ice and coarse sea salt for 2 hours.

  3. Turn ice out of molds onto a napkin on a dish.

  4. Serve directly from the freezing pot.

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. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

  3. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Vanilla + eggtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together27,347 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Vanilla and sugar 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

Double cream
Provides fat and richness, giving the ice cream a smooth, creamy body.
Egg yolks
Emulsify and thicken the custard, giving structure and a silky texture when gently heated.
Pounded sugar
Adds sweetness and softens the frozen texture so it stays scoopable.
Vanilla stick
Infuses the cream with aroma and flavour during steeping.
Whipped double cream
Adds air and lightness, making the frozen texture less dense.

The step that matters

Stir the custard over low heat. Egg yolks thicken the custard gently, but too much heat can scramble them and curdle the mixture, so keep the heat low and stir continuously.

“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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