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Dessert

Almond Ice Cream

A frozen dessert made from blanched almonds, egg yolks, cream, milk, sugar, and almond extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓

Almond Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almonds

  1. Toast the almonds in a frying pan over heat until rich brown.

  2. Pound the toasted almonds to a paste in a mortar.

Make the custard

  1. Cook the milk and almond paste together in a double boiler for 20 minutes.

  2. Beat the egg yolks and sugar together, then gradually add to the milk and paste mixture.

  3. Strain the mixture through a sieve and stir occasionally while cooling.

Finish and freeze

  1. Add the cream and almond extract before freezing.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  3. Almond + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

  5. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the base and add richness as they set gently with heat.
Cream
Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture and softer frozen body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the almond paste and eggs are cooked into.
Blanched almonds
Supply the main almond flavour, deepened by toasting before grinding.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and lowers the freezing point for a softer texture.

The step that matters

Cooking the egg yolk custard. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if overheated. Gentle heat in a double boiler lets them thicken the base smoothly, and stirring while cooling keeps it even.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Pecansfits about as well
  3. Pistachiofits less well
  4. Chestnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, milk, sugar. 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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