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Vanilla Cream Ice

A custard-based ice cream flavored with vanilla and pale French brandy.

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

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Cut and bruise the vanilla in a mortar with some lump sugar.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the bruised vanilla and sugar with the egg yolks and cream.

  3. Cook over low heat until it forms a smooth custard, stirring constantly.

  4. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.

Finish and freeze

  1. Add the brandy, then freeze and mold the 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.

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

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

  3. Vanilla + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together806 recipes

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

  4. Vanilla + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

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

  5. Cream + brandytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they cook and give the ice cream a rich, smooth body.
Cream
Provides fat that makes the frozen ice cream creamy and smooth rather than icy.
Vanilla
Supplies the main flavour and aroma of the ice cream.
Lump sugar
Sweetens the base and softens the texture of the frozen ice cream.
Brandy
Adds aroma and, because alcohol does not freeze solid, keeps the ice cream softer.

The step that matters

Cook the custard over low heat. Egg yolks thicken at gentle heat but scramble if overheated, leaving lumps. Low heat and constant stirring keep 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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