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Vanilla Ice Cream

A custard-based vanilla ice cream made with milk, cream, egg, flour, sugar, vanilla, 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 custard

  1. Mix flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl.

  2. Add the slightly beaten egg and gradually stir in the scalded milk.

  3. Cook the mixture in a double boiler for 20 minutes, stirring constantly at first.

  4. If the custard appears curdled, it will smooth out when frozen.

Finish and freeze

  1. Once cool, add the vanilla and thin cream.

  2. Strain the mixture 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. Sugar + vanillatop 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).

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
Thickens the custard as it cooks, giving the ice cream body and a smooth, rich texture.
Flour
Stabilises the custard so it thickens gently and resists curdling during cooking.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice cream soft and scoopable.
Thin cream
Supplies fat that makes the frozen ice cream creamy and smooth on the palate.
Scalded milk
Provides the liquid base that the egg and flour thicken into the custard.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard in the double boiler. Heating gently while stirring lets the egg thicken the mixture evenly. Too much heat or too little stirring can scramble the egg, leaving a curdled, grainy custard.

“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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