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Coffee Ice Cream

A frozen dessert made from milk, egg, ground coffee, sugar, flour, salt, cream, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Coffee 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 ↓

Coffee Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Scald the milk with the ground coffee.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix the sugar, flour, and salt, then add the slightly beaten egg.

  3. Gradually pour the hot coffee mixture into the egg mixture, stirring constantly.

  4. Cook over hot water for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Finish and freeze

  1. Cool the mixture, then add the cream and vanilla.

  2. Strain through a double thickness of cheesecloth and 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. Coffee + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,391 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  5. Milk + coffeetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

Egg
Thickens the custard as it cooks and sets it into a smooth base.
Flour
Stabilizes the custard and helps it stay thick and smooth.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and softens the texture of the frozen ice cream.
Cream
Adds fat, giving the ice cream a rich, creamy mouthfeel.
Milk
Provides milk solids and liquid that form the body of the custard.
Ground coffee
Infuses the milk with the main coffee flavor of the ice cream.

The step that matters

Add the hot coffee mixture to the egg gradually. Pouring hot liquid into the egg too fast can scramble it before the custard thickens. Adding it slowly while stirring constantly warms the egg gently so the custard stays smooth.

“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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