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Dessert

Vanilla Ice' Cream

A frozen dessert made from cream, sugar, gelatin, milk, butter, and optional chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Vanilla Ice' Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Whip one pint of cream.

  2. Dissolve one tablespoon of granulated gelatin in two tablespoonfuls of water.

  3. Scald another pint of cream and add one cupful of granulated sugar, ensuring it is thoroughly dissolved.

  4. Stir in the gelatin and flavoring.

  5. Strain the mixture.

  6. As soon as it is cold, put it into the freezer.

  7. When partly frozen, add the whipped cream.

  8. Pack away to season for one or two hours before serving.

Make the sauce

  1. Put the sauce ingredients over the fire and cook to a thick syrup: two cupfuls sugar, one cupful of milk, two tablespoons grated chocolate (or the same amount of cocoa), and one tablespoon of butter.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

506Calories
10 gProtein
34 gFat
42 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Chocolate1 oz (28g) semisweet155
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Mary Elizabeth Lyles Wilson (1860–1924). 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. See the original page.

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 + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cream
Whipped cream adds air and richness, giving the ice cream a light, creamy texture.
Granulated gelatin
Sets the mixture so the ice cream holds its shape and stays smooth.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the base and lowers its freezing point, keeping it softer when frozen.
Milk
Adds moisture and dairy richness to the sauce, helping it cook into a syrup.
Grated chocolate
Provides flavour and colour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Drain the whipped cream before adding it. Excess milk liquid left in the cream can dilute the mixture and cause icy, watery texture, so draining it helps the ice cream freeze smoothly.

“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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