Skip to main content
Dessert

Neapolitan Ice Cream

A custard-based ice cream made with cream, milk, sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla.

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

Why it works: Milk and vanilla 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 ↓

Neapolitan Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Scald the milk in a double boiler until the water in the outer jacket boils.

  2. Beat the egg yolks and sugar together until smooth.

  3. Slowly stir the scalded milk into the egg mixture.

  4. Return the mixture to the double boiler and stir constantly until it coats the back of a spoon.

Finish and freeze

  1. Remove from heat, add the cream, and stir for 10 minutes.

  2. Cool, flavor with vanilla, and freeze.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness as they set gently over heat.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the base and helps keep the ice cream smooth when frozen.
Cream
Adds fat, which gives the ice cream a rich, smooth texture.
Fresh milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and adds dairy flavor.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard in the double boiler. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but if the mixture gets too hot it can curdle or turn grainy. Stirring constantly over gentle heat keeps it smooth until it coats a spoon.

“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.

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes