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Frozen Custard

A chilled custard made with milk, eggs, cornstarch, sugar, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Frozen Custard

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Frozen Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Scald the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Mix cornstarch with a little cold water until smooth, then add to the milk.

  3. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in the beaten egg yolks and cream, then add flavoring of your choice.

Finish and freeze

  1. Let the mixture cool, then fold in the beaten egg whites.

  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.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + eggtop 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).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base that the custard is built on.
Eggs
Egg yolks thicken the base and enrich it, while whites add lightness when folded in.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk as it cooks, giving the custard body and a smooth texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and softens the frozen texture by interfering with ice crystal formation.
Cream
Adds fat, which makes the frozen custard richer and creamier.

The step that matters

Cook the cornstarch mixture while stirring constantly. Cornstarch thickens only when heated, and it can scorch or form lumps if left unstirred on the heat. Constant stirring keeps the mixture smooth and evenly thickened before the eggs are added.

“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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