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 ↓
Ices and Ice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Boil 3 pints of milk in a custard kettle or a pail set in boiling water.
Beat yolks of eggs separately.
Beat whites of eggs separately.
Mix yolks with remaining pint of milk.
Stir the mixture into the boiling milk.
Boil for 2 minutes.
Remove from heat.
Add sugar and let it dissolve.
Strain custard through a crash towel.
Cool the strained custard.
Add cream and vanilla.
Refrigerate until needed.
Freeze
Prepare ice by pounding it until lumps are small.
Set the freezer in a tub.
Secure the cover.
Layer ice and salt around the freezer.
Pack solidly with a broom-handle or stick.
Pour custard into the freezer, filling two-thirds full.
Replace the cover.
Begin turning the freezer.
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.
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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,301 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Eggs
- Yolks thicken the custard as they heat and give it a rich, smooth body.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard and carries the other ingredients.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and softens the frozen texture of the ice cream.
- Cream
- Adds fat, which makes the ice cream richer and creamier.
- Vanilla
- Adds aroma and flavour to the finished ice cream.
- Coarse salt
- Lowers the freezing point of the ice, so it gets cold enough to freeze the custard.
The step that matters
Heating the custard after adding the yolks. Egg yolk proteins set when heated, so the custard can curdle or turn grainy if it boils too hard or too long. Stirring the mixture into the milk keeps the heat even and the custard smooth.
“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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