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Caramel Ice Cream

A custard-based ice cream flavored with caramelized sugar.

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. Scald the milk in a double boiler.

  2. Beat the eggs, flour, and 1 cup of sugar together until light.

  3. Add the egg mixture to the scalded milk and stir constantly until thickened, about 20 minutes.

  4. Remove from heat and add the remaining 1 cup of sugar, cream, and vanilla extract.

Caramelise and freeze

  1. Strain the mixture into an ice cream freezer and freeze.

  2. In a frying pan, heat 1 scant cup of sugar until it turns liquid and brown, then add it to the hot 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.

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

Eggs
Thicken the custard as they set with gentle heat, giving the base body.
Flour
Stabilises the custard and helps it thicken smoothly without curdling.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and, when browned, adds caramel flavour and colour.
Cream
Adds fat, which makes the frozen ice cream rich and smooth rather than icy.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and carries its dairy flavour.
Vanilla extract
Adds aromatic flavour that rounds out the caramel and dairy notes.

The step that matters

Browning the sugar for the caramel. Sugar can go from amber to burnt quickly, and bitter burnt caramel will taste harsh in the custard. Adding very hot caramel to the custard can also cause it to splatter or seize, so the caramel should be pale brown and added carefully.

“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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