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Dessert

Vanilla Ice Cream

A custard-based ice cream flavored with vanilla, made from milk, cream, flour, eggs, sugar, and salt.

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

  1. In a double boiler, heat 3 pints of milk.

  2. Make a thickening by mixing flour with 1 pint of milk, then add salt and stir into the heated milk.

  3. Cook for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring frequently.

  4. Stir in sugar and let the mixture cool.

Make the custard and freeze

  1. Beat the eggs separately, then add the yolks to the pint of cream to create a custard.

  2. Add vanilla and the beaten egg whites to the custard.

  3. Pour everything into a gallon freezer and freeze.

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

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

  3. Cream + sugartop 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).

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

Flour
Thickens the milk mixture so the base holds body and feels smooth rather than watery.
Eggs
Egg yolks enrich the custard and add richness, while whites add lightness and airiness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice cream softer and scoopable.
Cream
Adds fat, which gives the ice cream a rich, smooth texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the other ingredients thicken and freeze.

The step that matters

Cook the thickened base gently while stirring. Flour-thickened milk can scorch or form lumps if left unattended. Frequent stirring in a double boiler keeps heat even so the base thickens smoothly without sticking.

“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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