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Dessert

Caramel Ice Cream

A frozen dessert made from a custard base with caramel added.

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. In a bowl, mix hot milk, ¾ cup sugar, egg, and flour.

  2. Cook the mixture over low heat for 20 minutes, stirring constantly.

Add the caramel and freeze

  1. In a separate pan, caramelize ½ cup sugar until golden brown.

  2. Add the caramel to the custard while it's still hot.

  3. Stir in 1 quart of cream and ½ teaspoon of vanilla.

  4. 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. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Egg
Yolk proteins thicken the custard as it cooks, giving the ice cream body.
Flour
Starch thickens the custard base and helps it stay smooth.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice cream softer.
Cream
Adds fat, which makes the ice cream rich and creamy in texture.
Milk
Provides the liquid base that the custard is built on.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture over low heat, stirring constantly. Gentle, constant stirring keeps the egg from scrambling while the custard thickens evenly. High heat or neglect can curdle the egg and leave lumps.

“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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