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Plain Ice Cream

A simple ice cream made with cream, milk, flour, sugar, eggs, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Plain Ice Cream

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 ↓

Plain Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. In a double boiler, cook the milk until boiling.

  2. In a bowl, beat the eggs, flour, and part of the sugar to form a light batter.

  3. Stir the batter into the boiling milk and cook for 20 minutes, stirring often.

Finish and freeze

  1. Once cooled, beat in the remaining sugar and cream, then add vanilla extract.

  2. Freeze the mixture until solid.

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. 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. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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
Thicken the custard as they set with heat, giving it body and structure.
Flour
Stabilises the thickened base so it stays smooth and does not weep when cooked.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the eggs and flour thicken into a custard.
Cream
Adds fat, richness, and a smooth, creamy texture to the frozen ice cream.
Granulated sugar
Adds sweetness and softens the frozen texture, keeping it from freezing rock hard.

The step that matters

Cooking the batter into the boiling milk. Egg proteins can curdle or form lumps if the mixture overheats or stops being stirred. Stirring often keeps the thickened custard smooth and prevents scorching on the base of the pan.

“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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