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Dessert

Caramel Ice Cream

A frozen dessert made from milk, eggs, sugar, cream, vanilla, and caramel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Caramel Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Heat the milk in a double boiler.

  2. Separate the eggs.

  3. Cream the yolks with the sugar.

  4. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  5. Fold the beaten egg whites into the yolk mixture.

  6. Add the hot milk and cook until it begins to thicken.

  7. Let the mixture cool.

Make the caramel

  1. To make the caramel, melt 1 cup of sugar in a pan until it burns slightly.

  2. Add ½ cup of boiling water to the caramel and let it cool.

Combine and freeze

  1. Add the cream, vanilla, and caramel.

  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.

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. Cream + vanillatop 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

Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard and enrich it; whites folded in add lightness to the base.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, which thickens when heated with the yolks.
Cream
Adds fat for a rich, smooth texture that stays tender when frozen.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the custard and, when melted to caramel, adds deep flavor and color.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard until it begins to thicken. Egg yolks thicken as their proteins set with heat. Overheating can curdle the custard, while underheating leaves it thin and watery after freezing.

“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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