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Dessert

Tutti Frutti Ice Cream

A frozen dessert made with cream, sugar, eggs, vanilla, preserved fruits, and optional colorants.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Peach and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 342 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Tutti Frutti Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Combine 2 quarts of cream, 1 pound powdered sugar, and 4 whole eggs in a pot. Mix well.

  2. Heat the mixture over low heat, stirring constantly, until it just reaches boiling. Remove from heat and stir until nearly cold.

  3. Add 1 tablespoon vanilla extract.

Add fruit and colour

  1. Cut preserved fruits into small pieces and mix them into the cream when it is half frozen.

  2. Dissolve 1 teaspoon carmine in 1 teaspoon water and mix into the ice cream for a marbled effect (optional).

Make the custard

  1. Beat 8 egg yolks and mix with 4 cups sugar.

  2. Gradually add 1 quart heated milk while beating continuously. Fold in 8 beaten egg whites.

  3. Boil the mixture in a double boiler for about 15 minutes until thickened like custard, stirring steadily.

  4. Cool the custard, then mix in 3 pints rich sweet cream and 5 teaspoons vanilla.

Freeze

  1. Pack the mixture in a pail with a close-fitting cover, surrounded by a mixture of ¾ ice and ¼ rock salt.

  2. Beat the custard for 5 minutes before sealing. Cover and let sit for 1 hour.

  3. After an hour, uncover, scrape the frozen custard from the sides and bottom, then beat again.

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. Peach + apricottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together342 recipes

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

  2. Vanilla + peachtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together558 recipes

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

  3. Vanilla + apricottop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together608 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  4. Vanilla + pineappletop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together911 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Apricot + pineappletop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together377 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cream
Provides richness and fat, giving the frozen ice cream a smooth, creamy texture.
Eggs
Egg yolks and whites thicken the custard and add richness and structure to the base.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and softens the frozen texture so it is easier to scoop.
Preserved fruits
Adds concentrated fruit flavour and chewy pieces throughout the ice cream.

The step that matters

Heating the cream and egg mixture. Eggs thicken as they warm, but if the mixture overheats or is not stirred constantly, the eggs can scramble and leave a grainy texture. Stop heating as soon as it just reaches boiling.

Swap the pineapple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar, egg, vanilla, peach, apricot, spirit):

  1. Raspberryfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Plumfits about as well
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, egg, vanilla, peach, apricot, spirit. 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.

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