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Dessert

Vanilla Ice Cream

A custard-based ice cream flavored with vanilla, made by boiling milk with sugar, thickening with cornstarch, tempering eggs, folding in whites, and freezing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Vanilla Ice Cream

Why it works: Vanilla and milk 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 base

  1. Stir sugar into milk and bring to a boil.

  2. Mix cornstarch with cold water and add it slowly to the boiling milk while stirring.

Add the eggs

  1. In a bowl, add a little of the hot mixture to the beaten egg yolks, then gradually mix in the rest.

  2. Turn off the heat and fold in the beaten egg whites and vanilla.

Freeze

  1. 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.

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. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Vanilla and sugar 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 enrich and help set the custard, while whites add lightness to the mixture.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk as its starch granules swell and gelatinize when heated.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that carries the sugar and sets into a creamy texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps soften the texture of the frozen dessert.
Vanilla
Adds aroma and flavor to the finished ice cream.

The step that matters

Adding the hot mixture to the egg yolks. Adding the hot milk gradually, a little at a time, warms the yolks slowly so they do not scramble. Whisking while pouring keeps 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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