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Vanilla Ice Cream

A custard ice cream made with sugar, eggs, gelatin, sweet cream, and vanilla extract.

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

Why it works: Gelatin and cream match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,628 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Vanilla Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Dissolve the golden flake (gelatin) in a small amount of warm water.

  2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs until well combined.

  3. Gradually add the sugar to the eggs, mixing until smooth.

  4. Stir in the dissolved gelatin and sweet cream.

  5. Add the vanilla extract and mix well.

Chill and churn

  1. Chill the mixture thoroughly before churning in an ice cream maker.

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.

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.

  1. Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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
Add richness and help the base set into a smooth, creamy texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and softens the texture of the frozen ice cream.
Golden flake (gelatin)
Helps the mixture hold together and resist icy, coarse crystals.
Sweet cream
Supplies fat and moisture for a rich, smooth body.

The step that matters

Chill the mixture thoroughly before churning. A cold base freezes quickly during churning, which keeps ice crystals small and the texture smooth. A warm base churns slowly and can freeze coarse and 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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