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Vanilla Ice Cream

A custard ice cream made with sweet milk, sugar, corn starch, eggs, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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. Combine milk and half of the sugar in a saucepan.

  2. Place the saucepan in a larger pan with boiling water.

  3. Mix corn starch with a little cold milk.

  4. Stir the mixture into the saucepan.

  5. Cook until it boils for 2 minutes.

  6. Beat 2 teaspoons of remaining sugar with the egg whites.

  7. Add the rest of the sugar to the corn starch mixture.

Finish the custard

  1. Beat egg yolks with a spoonful of cold milk.

  2. Stir the yolk mixture into the custard.

  3. Cook until it thickens, but do not let it boil.

  4. Remove from heat and strain through a fine cloth.

  5. Place the strained custard in a pan of cold water.

Fold in the whites and freeze

  1. Beat egg whites with sugar until stiff.

  2. Fold the stiff egg whites into the custard.

  3. Add vanilla extract.

  4. Refrigerate until cold enough to 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. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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

Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard and whites whip into foam that lightens the ice cream.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the starch and egg yolks thicken into custard.
White granulated sugar
Adds sweetness and helps stabilize the beaten egg whites.
Corn starch
Thickens the custard so the ice cream holds a smooth, body-rich texture.
Vanilla extract
Provides the dominant aroma and flavor of the finished ice cream.

The step that matters

Cook the custard until it thickens but does not boil. Egg yolks and starch thicken as they heat, but overheating can curdle the yolks and leave the custard grainy. Gentle heat keeps it smooth, and straining catches any small lumps.

“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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