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Dessert

Chocolate Ice Cream

A frozen dessert made with chocolate, milk, sugar, corn starch, egg, cream, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Chocolate Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chocolate base

  1. Finely chop the chocolate and place it in a saucepan with 4 tablespoons of cold water.

  2. Set the saucepan in a pan of boiling water and stir until it forms a smooth paste.

  3. Stir in the milk and sugar.

Thicken the custard

  1. Mix the corn starch with a little cold milk and stir it in; cook until it boils for 2 minutes.

  2. Beat the egg yolk with 1 teaspoon of cold milk and stir it in; cook until it thickens without boiling.

  3. Remove from heat and strain through a fine cloth into a bowl.

  4. Set the bowl in a pan of cold water to cool.

Finish and freeze

  1. Beat the egg white with ½ teaspoon of sugar until stiff and fold it into the mixture.

  2. Add the cream and vanilla; if not cold enough, place in the freezer.

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

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

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  4. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

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

Chocolate
Provides the main flavour and colour of the ice cream.
Corn starch
Thickens the custard base so it holds a smooth, creamy body.
Egg
Yolk thickens the custard, while the beaten white adds lightness when folded in.
Sweet cream
Adds richness and fat, giving a softer, creamier texture.
White granulated sugar
Sweetens the base and helps keep the ice cream soft when frozen.

The step that matters

Cooking the egg yolk custard without boiling. Egg yolk thickens as it heats, but if it boils it can curdle and become grainy. Cook gently and stop once it thickens.

“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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