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Frozen cream ices of different flavours and colours, moulded together in layers, made from rice, egg yolks and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Blandy, John · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 12,294 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Make the rice custard base

  1. Boil 1 lb good rice in 1 pint milk until quite soft.

  2. Add 1 pint cream and a stick of vanilla; boil one minute and let cool.

  3. Drain off the thin part, put 8 yolks with it, and stir with a wooden spoon over the fire until it thickens; it must not boil.

  4. Let it cool, then add 1 pint double whipped cream and mix.

  5. Put one-third of this with the rice left in the pot; take out the vanilla.

Freeze and mould

  1. Freeze this as usual.

  2. When nicely frozen and smooth, put it into Neapolitan moulds (very small moulds that open at the side).

  3. Place the moulds in the ice pail, packed up with ice until required.

  4. Dish them up with the remainder of the cream that was left.

Make the second ice

  1. For the second ice, mix the yolks of 8 eggs, a small glass of cold water and a gill of maraschino (liqueur), and add syrup enough to make it sweet.

  2. Place this in a stewpan on the fire and whisk until it comes to a thick cream-like appearance; do not let it boil.

  3. Take it off the fire and give it five minutes' brisk whipping with the whisk until very light.

  4. Put it into the freezer, cover with a cloth, let it cool, then stand the freezer in ice for three or four hours until wanted.

  5. When frozen, some of this can be mixed with other ice: take it carefully out of the middle and put in its place an ice of different flavour and colour.

Make the cream and freeze

  1. Break up the yolks of 3 eggs slightly, put in the sugar, and beat until smooth.

  2. Whisk the whites separately to a froth, then add them to the yolks and sugar.

  3. Mix this with the cream and flavouring and whisk; place altogether in the pan and simmer as before.

  4. When ready, rub through a hair sieve and allow to cool.

  5. Freeze it in the usual manner: put the chilled cream in a freezer, cover, and put the freezer in the freezing tub, well packed round with 1 part salt and 3 parts ice.

  6. Occasionally sprinkle a handful of salt on the ice while freezing, give a few turns, and work it down smooth with the spattle; then turn until the cream is frozen even and smooth all through.

  7. If the ice is sloppy, draw some water off, re-pack with fresh ice and salt, and cover up well.

  8. Put a blanket or cloth wetted with the salt ice water drawn off all round it, and leave about two hours to perfect.

  9. If to be sold in moulds of different colours, lay layer upon layer, fill the moulds quite full, and press the cream into all parts.

By Blandy, John. 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Vanilla + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together12,294 recipes

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

  2. Cream + eggtop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together41,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Vanilla + eggtop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together27,323 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Vanilla and cream share little aroma chemistry, yet 12,294 recipes mention both: they likely 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 enrich it, giving a smooth, rich texture as they set.
Whipped cream
Adds fat and air, making the frozen ice rich and tender rather than icy.
Rice (in the method)
Cooked soft in milk and pressed through, it adds body and a creamy, smooth texture.
Milk (in the method)
Cooks the rice to softness and forms the liquid base of the custard.
Sugar (in the method)
Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice softer.
Egg whites
Whipped to a froth, they add lightness to the cream mixture.

The step that matters

Do not let the yolk custard boil. Egg yolks thicken gently as they heat, but past about 80°C they curdle and turn grainy, so the custard must be stirred over low heat until it coats the spoon.

Flavor stand-ins for the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, egg):

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raspberryabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Strawberryabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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