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Vanilla Ice Cream

A custard-based ice cream flavored with vanilla, made by cooling milk and sugar, then adding sweet cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Vanilla 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 ↓

Vanilla Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Make the custard by heating the milk and sugar until the sugar dissolves.

  2. Stir in the vanilla and let the mixture cool for several hours.

  3. Once cooled, add the sweet cream and mix well.

Raspberry variation

  1. For raspberry ice cream, omit the vanilla and add 1 quart of berries.

  2. Sprinkle 1 cup of sugar over the berries and let them stand for 1-2 hours.

  3. Mash the berries and strain the mixture before adding it to the custard.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Vanilla + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

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

  5. Milk + creamtop 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, giving the ice cream its body.
Sugar
Dissolves into the milk to add sweetness and softness to the frozen texture.
Sweet cream
Adds fat, which makes the ice cream rich and creamy.
Vanilla
Provides the main aroma and flavor of the vanilla ice cream.

The step that matters

Let the custard cool fully before adding the cream. Adding cream to a warm custard can thin the fat and cause it to separate or melt unevenly, so the base should be cold before mixing.

“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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