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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 grate the chocolate.

  2. Place the grated chocolate in a saucepan with 4 tablespoons cold water and place the saucepan in a pan of boiling water.

  3. Stir until it becomes a smooth paste.

  4. Stir in the milk and the sugar.

  5. Mix the corn starch with a little cold milk and stir the mixture in.

  6. Cook until it boils for 2 minutes.

Thicken the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolk with 1 teaspoon cold milk and stir the mixture in.

  2. Cook until it thickens but does not boil.

  3. Remove from heat.

  4. Strain through a fine cloth.

  5. Set the mixture in a pan of cold water to cool.

Finish and freeze

  1. Beat the egg white with ½ teaspoon sugar until stiff.

  2. Fold the beaten egg white into the mixture.

  3. Add the cream and vanilla.

  4. If not cold enough, place the mixture 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

Egg
The yolk thickens the custard as it cooks, and the whipped white adds lightness to the finished ice cream.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk mixture so the base becomes smooth and holds its body when cooled.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and helps keep the frozen ice cream softer and smoother.
Sweet cream
Adds fat, which gives the ice cream a rich, smooth texture.
Chocolate
Provides the main flavour and, melted into a paste, colours the base.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard without boiling. The egg yolk can curdle if it gets too hot. Cooking gently until the mixture thickens, without letting it boil, keeps it smooth and creamy.

“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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