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Fruit Ice Cream

A custard-based ice cream flavored with figs, citron, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 324 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Fruit Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Combine milk, eggs, and sugar in a saucepan.

  2. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens like custard.

  3. Remove from heat and let it cool.

  4. Once cooled, add vanilla extract.

Add fruit and freeze

  1. Stir in the chopped figs, citron, and any other finely chopped fruits.

  2. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.

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. Fig + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together324 recipes

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

  2. Arrowroot + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together242 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  5. Milk + figtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,026 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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 milk mixture into a custard as they cook and set.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps soften the texture of the frozen ice cream.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and the ice cream.
Arrowroot
Starch that helps thicken and stabilize the mixture.
Figs
Provide the main fruit flavor and chewy texture in the ice cream.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard over medium heat. Stirring constantly keeps the egg proteins from clumping or scrambling on the bottom of the pan, so the custard thickens smoothly.

Swap the arrowroot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, sugar, fig, vanilla):

  1. Sweet potatofits about as well
  2. Arrowrootthe original
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Beetrootfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar, fig, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

More fruit ice cream recipes

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